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Book 



THE 



INVASION OF BRITAIN 
BY JULIUS CAESAR. 



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THE 



INVASION OF BKITAIN 



BY JULIUS CLESAR 



THOMAS LEWIN, ESQ. 

OF TXHN". COLL. OXON. M.A. 
AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL." 






LONDON 

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 

1859 









bl 



PREFACE. 



The following pages were commenced with a view to 
delivering a Lecture before a Literary Society in Sussex, 
where the subject would have possessed a local interest ; 
but the discussion was soon found to involve a minute- 
ness of detail which was little suited to a general audi- 
ence. The author, therefore, rather than confess that 
his time had been thrown away (an opinion which will 
still be entertained by many of his readers), determined 
on submitting the result of his labour, (or rather of 
his amusement,) to the judgment of the public. 

It is almost investing a trifle with too great import- 
ance to thank several friends for their assistance, but 
the author cannot refrain from acknowledging the 
kindness of the Eev. C. Merivale, for the tract noticed 
in the Appendix; Mr. S. Waley, for the loan of 
Mariette's Memoir on the Portus Itius, from which 



vi PREFACE. 

much valuable information has been derived ; Mr. Bar- 
ton, of Dover, for inquiries about the Tides ; and the 
author's relative, Mrs. S. Lewin, for much time and 
pains bestowed on the preparation of the Illustra- 
tions. 



Lincoln's Inn : 
July 13, 1859. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PLATES. 

Head of Caesar Frontispiece. 

Chart of the Channel page 1 

Old Map of the Gallic Coast 20 

Old Map of the eastern end of Romney Marsh ... 44 
Old French Map illustrative of Portus Itius . . .130 

WOODCUTS. 

Barrington's Sketch of Coway Ford 105 

Crawter's Sketch of ditto 106 

The Coway Stake deposited in the British Museum . . 131 



CORRIGENDA. 



Page 3, note, for "J. Csesarem " read " C. Csesarem." 
„ 9, line 1, dele " of Csesar." 
„ 25, last line, for " Cneius " read " Cnseus." 
„ 25, for " we have already had occasion to mention " read " we are 

informed." 
„ 30, line 17, for " had been " read "were." 
„ 39, line 6, correct thus : " if the wind was in his favour in coming from 

Boulogne to Dover, it must have blown from some j>oint of the south, 

and then if it still continued in that quarter, and Caesar sailed before 

it, he must, have steered up Channel to the east." 
„ 43, line 5, for " coast " read " west. " 



IS 2 T A 2 ] 

Canterbury 







THE 



CAMPAIGNS OF JULIUS CJ1SAR 

IN BRITAIN. 



FIEST INVASION. 



I pkopose to sketch the first page of British history, 
the invasion of the island by Caius Julius Cassar, after- 
wards Eornan emperor. We here look across a gulf 
of nearly two thousand years ; but, if I mistake not, 
the picture to be presented of that period will be 
graphic and distinct. We have an account from the 
pen of Caesar himself, the principal actor in the drama ; 
and his Commentaries, though intended for notes only, 
are so masterly and so full of lifelike impressions that 
by bestowing a little care we can follow him from 
place to place, and from day to day, with the most 
extraordinary minuteness. The Eoman calendar was at 
that time in such confusion that any references to it 
would only have tended to mislead, and Cassar, writing 
for posterity, has measured his campaigns by winter 
and summer, by equinoxes and moons. In tracing his 
progress we shall find some very remarkable instances 
of the precision with which his steps can be traced by 
means of casual observations upon the phenomena of 
nature, and it is this singular characteristic of his 

B 



Z (LESAR IN GAUL. 

narrative which has tempted our eminent astronomers, 
Halley and Airy, to devote some portion of their time 
and labour to the investigation of the subject. 

Historians and antiquarians are all agreed that the 
first footstep of Caesar upon these shores was planted 
either in Sussex or in Kent. In which of the two 
has been warmly contested, and I shall not here by 
anticipation determine the controversy. I shall lay 
before you the facts which have left no doubt on my 
own mind, and will, if the result answer to expectation, 
bring conviction to yourselves. The palm contended 
for is no mean one, for the Eoman legions were so 
warmly received, that, even under Caesar's auspices, 
they effected their landing with the utmost difficulty. 

It was in B.C. 58 that Caesar took possession, as 
praetor or governor, of the province of Gaul, then 
comprising the North of Italy, called Gallia Cisalpina, 
with part of Ulyricum, and the South of France, called 
Gallia Transalpina, or Provincia Eomanorum. In the 
course of four successive years, Caesar, by feats of arms 
and diplomatic address, extended the limits of his pro- 
vince as far as the Ehine eastward, and the barrier of 
the ocean to the north and west. Towards the close 
of B. c. 55, he looked around in vain for an enemy in 
Gaul, and cast his eyes in the direction of Britain. He 
already anticipated the coming conflict between himself 
and Pompey ; and it was necessary to find some plausible 
pretext for adding to the number of his legions, and 
promoting their efficiency by constant employment. Be- 
sides, what booty was to be expected from a country 
whither Eoman spoliation had never yet penetrated, and 
which was said to produce gold and silver and pearls ! * 

1 " Fert Britannia aurum et argentum et alia metalla pretinm 
victoria?. Gignit et oceanus margaritas." — Tac. Vit. Agric. " Multi 



CAESAR IN GAUL. 3 

what glory was to be reaped from the annexation to 
the Eoman Eepublic of the largest known island, and 
that so remote as to be deemed, in popular belief, be- 
yond the limits of the world! * 

A favourable opportunity also now presented itself, 
for hostilities had lately broken out between Cassive- 
laun, king of the Catyeuchlani (Middlesex and Hertford- 
shire), and Imanuent, king of the Trinobantes (the 
people of Essex), and Imanuent, finding himself worsted 
in the conflict, had appealed to Caesar for assistance 
against his too powerful neighbour. 2 

The excuse ostensibly alleged by Caesar for the 
aggression was the same as that more recently put 
forward by the Great Napoleon, in justification of a 
like fruitless attempt, viz. that Britain had subsidised 
hostile powers in the Continental wars. 3 

The invasion of Britain being resolved upon, the first 
tiling to be done was to gain information touching the 
ports of the island, and the resistance to be offered. 4 
The Gauls in general were wholly ignorant upon these 
matters, and he could learn nothing. He then sum- 

prodiderunt (J. Caesarem) Britanniam petisse spe margaritarum." 
— Suet. Cces. 46, 47. 

1 " Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos." Virg. Eclog. i. 67. 

2 In the following year Mandubert, the son of Imanuent, on 
escaping to Gaul, is said " fidem Caesaris secutus" (B. G. v. 20) ; and 
he had, therefore, pledged himself to Caesar the year before. 

3 " Quod omnibus fere Gallicis bellis hostibus nostris subministrata 
auxilia intelligebat." — Cces. B. G. iv. 20. " Auxilia ex Britannia, quaa 
contra eas regiones posita est, (Veneti) accersunt." — B. G. iii. 9. 

4 The difficulties of Cassar, from his total ignorance when he 
embarked on the first expedition, were a favourite topic with the 
orators for practice in speaking. " Haec et in suasoriis aliquando 
tractari solent ; ut, si Caesar deliberet, An Britanniam impugnet ? 
Quae sit Oceani natura ? An Britannia insula ? Quanta in ea terra ? 
Quo numero militum aggredienda ? " — QuinctiL de Orator, vji. 4. 

b 2 



4 OESAR IN GAUL. 

moned into his presence the merchants who traded 
with Britain, and must, therefore, be acquainted with 
the products of the country and the manners of the 
inhabitants. But to his surprise, the merchants were 
equally dull ; so that he could not even satisfy himself 
whether there existed along the coast a single harbour 
for the reception of a fleet. 1 One cannot help sur- 
mising that these merchants could have told a great 
deal more than was suffered to escape from their lips. 
The ignorance of the Gauls was probably not affected, 
for Caesar makes the remark, as true of the past day 
as of the present, that no one thought of visiting Britain 
unless he had some substantial reason for it. 2 

Caesar, however, was not to be thus foiled ; and, 
as he could extract nothing from the Gauls, he deter- 
mined on despatching one of his own officers to survey 
the island. Caius Volusenus was selected for the pur- 
pose. He started on his errand in a long ship 3 , i. e. one 
built for the utmost speed, and impelled by oars; in 
short, a Eoman trireme, or war-galley. 

Meanwhile, Caesar, to prepare for the expedition, 
marched into the country of the Morini. We shall hear 
something more of these Morini, and we may, there- 
fore, pause at once to ascertain where their country was 

1 The Veneti of Gaul (the people of Vannes) were those who 
chiefly traded with Britain, and they did every thing to thwart the 
expedition : " erotf.iot yap i\aav (01 Oviveroi) KtoXvetr tov elg rrjy 
UpETTdviKYiv tt\ovv yjpiofXEvoi raj £jU7rop/w." — Strab. iv. p. 271. 
The Morini also, who occupied the coast opposite Britain, were 
equally friendly to the islanders : " rdv Nwplvwy <j)l\o)y o<pioiv 
bvTiov." — Dion, xxxix. 51. 

2 " Neque enim temere praeter mercatores illo adit quisquam." 
— Cces. B. G. iv. 20. In that age also, as in the present, Britain 
was the asylum of refugees from the Continent : " hujus consilii 
principes ... in Britanniam profugisse." — Cces. B. G. ii. 14. 

» " Navi longa." — B. G. iv. 21. 



CAESAR IN GAUL. 

situate. Csesar tells us that he went thither because 
thence was the shortest passage into Britain. 1 It was, 
therefore, unquestionably the part of Gaul opposite to 
Dover; and the only debatable point is, what were 
the exact limits of the Morini, east and west \ Ptolemy, 
the celebrated geographer, in tracing the northern line 
of the coast of Gaul, from the river Seine eastwards, 
enumerates the peoples and rivers in the following 
order: — 1. The Atrebates (of Arras); 2. the Bello- 
vaci ; 3. the Ambiani (of Amiens, on the Somme) ; 
4. the Morini; 5. the Eiver Tabula (the Scheldt); 
and 6. the Meuse. 2 Thus the Morini were eastward 
of the Ambiani, and as the latter were settled on the 
Somme, and reached down to the coast, as appears 
from Pliny 3 , the Morini certainly did not extend be- 
yond the Somme westward. 4 It is likely that they 

1 " Ipse cum omnibus copiis in Morinos proficiscitur, quod inde 
erat brevissimus in Britanniam trajectus." — Cces. B.G. iv. 21. How 
then could Cassar have sailed, as Professor Airy supposes, from the 
estuary of the Somme, which is double the distance ? But of this 
more hereafter. 

2 " KaTs-^ovtri de rfjp irapdXiov, £Tri\a[i€,avovT£Q av\vbv icai tyjq 
fxeffoyeiagy napd fxsv tov UriKoavav 'Arpe^artot," &c. — Ptol. ii. 9. 7. 

3 " A Scaldi [Scheldt] incolunt extera [on the coast] Toxandri 
pluribus nominibus. Deinde Menapii, Oromansaci juncti pago [dis- 
trict] qui Gessoriacus vocatur, Britanni, Ambiani, Bellovaci. In- 
trorsus Castologi, Atrebates, Nervii liberi," &c. — N. H. iv. 31. 

4 The "Ikiov aicpov of Ptolemy is generally taken for Cape Grisnez ; 
and if so, as Gesoriacus Portus was certainly Boulogne, Ptolemy, in 
this part of the coast, has fallen into an error in placing Cape Grisnez 
to the west of Boulogne. Mariette suggests (p. 49) that "Lctov atcpov 
is Cape Alpreck, about three miles to the west of Boulogne, of great 
perpendicular height, and formerly projecting further into the 
sea; and then Gesoria would correspond to Isques or Iccium (at 
Pont de Briques), and Gesoriacus Portus to the port of Boulogne. 
If"I<aov aKpov be Cape Grisnez, and rightly placed by Ptolemy, 
then Gesoriacus Portus would, in Ptolemy's idea, be Calais; 

b 3 



6 (LESAR IN GAUL. 

occupied the coast from the river La Canche west, to 
the Aa, at Gravelines, east. 1 

While Cassar was amongst the Morini collecting ves- 
sels for the intended invasion, an embassy arrived from 
some of the British states to tender their submission. 
Csesar's projects had got wind, and been wafted across 
the Channel, and the Britons hoped that they might 
avert hostilities by some complimentary forms ; but 
Caesar was wide awake, and knew as well as they the 
value of words, and making large promises proceeded 
with his armament. He also sent back with the envoys 
a Gallic partisan of his own : one Comius, king of the 
Atrebates, of Arras, in Gaul. He was thought to carry 
some weight in Britain, and was, therefore, ordered to 
visit the different chieftains of the island, and promote 
the Eoman interests 2 ; but Comius had no sooner landed 
than the spirited Britons seized him as a spy and put 
him in chains. 3 C. Volusenus, who had been sent 
across the Channel to reconnoitre the coast, returned 
after an absence of five days only, and made his report, 
a somewhat meagre one, as we must necessarily con- 
clude ; for, allowing two days for coming and going, he 
had only three days at command, and, in so short a 
space, he could scarcely have done more than take the 
soundings between Dungeness and the South Foreland. 
Of the country itself he could render no account what- 

whereas it was certainly Boulogne. Ptolemy, in short, is full of 
error, and not to be depended upon in detail, though invaluable as a 
general guide. 

1 Bertrand's Hist, of Boulogne. Richborough is described by an 
ancient writer as looking, not toward the Morini, but toward the 
Menapii and Batavi. " Eutubi Portus, unde, haud procul a Morinis 
in austro positos, Menapos Batavosque prospectant." — JEthicus, cited 
Monum. Hist. Brit. p. xix. 

2 Ca?s. B. G. iv. 21. 3 b. G. iv. 27. 



STATE OF BRITAIN. 7 

ever, for he had not dared even to set foot upon 
shore. 1 

As Ave are now approaching the time of the actual 
invasion, I must endeavour to give a slight sketch of 
Britain, such as C. Volusenus did not see it, but such 
as Cassar himself afterwards found it. The picture of 
an ancient Briton, as portrayed in the frontispiece of 
our school histories, is no doubt familiar to every one. 
An athletic figure in pur is naturalibus, with the excep- 
tion of the skin of some wild beast thrown about his 
loins, a moustache on the upper lip, a smooth chin, 
long hanging hair behind, a spear in the hand, and the 
whole body stained after some curious pattern with 
woad 2 ; in short, a barbarian, such as may still be found 
in some of the islands of the Pacific. Now Britain at 
this time was unquestionably occupied by two very dif- 
ferent races, and the above portrait may have some 
foundation for it as regards one of them, but is certainly 
very far from the truth as regards the other. Originally, 
all the West of Europe, including France, Great Britain, 
and Ireland, was inhabited by a people called by the 

1 " Volusenus, perspectis regionibus, quantum ei facultatis dari 
potuit qui navi egredi ac se barbaris committere non auderet, quinto 
die ad Caesarem revertitur, quaeque ibi perspexisset renuntiat." — 
Cces.B. G.21. 

2 It must be admitted that, according to Caesar, the Britons 
generally stained themselves with vitrum or woad. (B. G. v. 14.) 
Herodian adds that the stains were imitations of animals {to. Ik 
awfxara ari^ovrat ypa<pa~iQ (wwv iroiKiXioy. — Herod, cited Mon. Hist. 
Brit. p. lxiv.) ; and I do not suppose that the whole body was 
stained, but the face only, in order, as Caesar remarks, to give them 
a fiercer aspect in war. In Egypt the women still stain the chin 
with some device, and, if I mistake not, there are traces of the same 
custom on the chin of the Sphinx; yet neither the present nor 
the ancient Egyptians are called barbarians. 

b 4 



8 STATE OF BRITAIN. 

Greeks Galatians, by the Eomans Gauls, and by them- 
selves Celtse ; all, no doubt, the same word under diffe- 
rent forms. We have still large traces of the name in 
our own island. Thus Scotland is the land of the Gael ; 
the Principality is Wales, Wallia, or Gallia, or in French 
Pays de Galles ; and Cornwall, one of the last strong- 
holds of the Celts, is so called as being corner- Wales. 
I need scarcely mention that Gaelic, Welsh, and Cornish 
are all essentially the same language. The Celts, then, 
were the first head-wave of population which, streaming 
from the East, poured over the broad fields of Gaul. 
But soon from behind came another mountain-wave, 
the Germanic race, which soon deluged all the countries 
up to the Ehine. Here the great breadth of the river 
for some while presented a check, but at last the pres- 
sure from behind forced them across the barrier, and 
they drove the weaker Celtic family before them. In 
the North of Europe, the Germans eventually occupied 
all the parts between the Ehine and the Seine, and 
were known by the name of Belgse, not to be con- 
founded with the Belgians of the present day, but 
described by Csesar as the most formidable of all the 
nations west of the Ehine. 1 As they occupied the 
coast just opposite Britain, and in clear weather could 
descry the white cliffs of Albion, they would naturally 
soon transport themselves across the strait. The up- 
shot was that they colonised all the south-eastern portion 
of Britain, compelling the Celtic inhabitants to fall back 
into the cul-de-sac of Cornwall to the south, the moun- 
tains of Wales to the west, and the Caledonian hills to 
the north. 2 We can now understand the statement 



1 " Horam omnium fortissimi sunt Belgse." — Cces. B. G. i. 1. 

2 The description of the barbarous part of Britain exactly tallies 



STATE OF BRITAIN. \) 

of Cassar, that the clans in Britain were many of them 
called after those in Gaul * ; that they had the same 
customs 2 ; that Divitiacus, king of the Suessones, a tribe 
of the Belgas, was also (as Canute in after times) the 
acknowledged sovereign of a wide territory in Britain 3 ; 
that Cingetorix was the name not only of the king of 
the Treviri, or Belgse about Treves, on the Moselle 4 , 
but also of one of the kings of Kent 5 ; that the houses 
in Britain were the counterparts of those in Gaul 6 ; 
that the language of the Belgge and the Britons was all 
but identical 7 ; and that Comius, the chief of Arras in 
Gaul, was sent for this reason by Cassar into Britain to 
plead the Eoman cause in their own tongue. 

We must distinguish, then, between the Belgse and 

with that by Xiphilinus of the Britons to the north of the Eoman 
wall. (Xiphilin. lxxvi. 12 ; Mori. Hist. Brit, lx.) 

1 " Qui omnesfere [the South-Britons] iis nominibus civitatum ap- 
pellantur quibus orti civitatibus eo pervenerunt." — Cces. B. G. v. 12. 

2 " Neque multum a Gallica differunt consuetudine." — Cces. B. G. 
v. 14. And so Strabo, iv. 5 : " rd <T rjdt) Sfioia KfXrote." 

3 " Divitiacum totius Galliae potentissimum, qui quum magnse partis 
harum regionum turn etiam Britannia? imperium obtinuerit." — Cces. 
B. G. ii. 4. 

4 Cses. B. G. v. 3. 5 Ca3s. B. G. v. 22. 

6 " jEdificia fere Gallicis consimiha." — lb. v. 12. Chiefly of wood 
and thatched : " tcai rag o\ky]<jeiq euTtXelg iyovaiv Ik tiov Ka\a.p.u)v rj 
tyXwv Kara, to wXelaTOV avyKeifievag.^ — Diod. Sic. v. 21. 

7 This appears from Tacitus, Agric. c. 11 : " Sermo haud mul- 
tum diversus : " and this was a dialect of the German ; for Tacitus, 
speaking of the ^Estui, a German tribe, says, " Lingua Britannicse 
propior " (Mor. Germ. 45). The iEstui are placed " dextro Suevici 
maris littore " (lb. 45) ; and amongst the Suevic nations are the 
Angli, who worshipped " Hertham [Earth], id est, Terram matrem " 
(lb. 40). Thus Hengist and Horsa, and the Saxons, merely fol- 
lowed the road which their ancestors had taken centuries before. 
Indeed the influx of the Germans into Britain was only suspended 
by Caesar's invasion. 



10 STATE OF BRITAIN. 

the Celta3 of Britain, the Southerns and Northerns. 
The latter were, perhaps, but little elevated above the 
state of barbarians. Csesar describes thern as clad hi 
skins, and supporting themselves from their cattle 
rather than from tillage. 1 But the Belgas, with whom 
the Eoman legions were engaged, though also called 
barbarians (by which name all were designated who 
were not Greeks or Eomans), had attained to a very 
considerable degree of civilisation. In the first place, 
there was a crowded population, which is never found 
in a state of barbarism. 2 Even in literary attainments 
the Britons were in advance of the Gauls, for the 
priests are universally the depositaries of learning, and 
the Gauls were in the habit of sending their youth to 
Britain to perfect themselves in the knowledge of 
Druidism. 3 Then there was great commercial inter- 
course carried on between Britain and Gaul 4 , not to 

1 lb. v. 14. The remains of one of these Celtic chieftains may be 
seen in the museum at Scarborough. On opening a tumulus in the 
neighbourhood, a coffin excavated from the solid trunk of an oak 
was discovered, and in it a skeleton more than six feet in stature, 
which had been wrapped in the hairy skin of some animal ; and at 
the side were arrow-heads of flint. A more genuine relic of the 
earliest inhabitants of our island, and when still in a savage state, is 
nowhere to be found. 

2 " Hominum est infinita multitudo." — Cces. B. G. v. 12. " E'iVcu 
£e teal iro\vavBpit)irov ty}v vtj<tov." — Diod. Sic. v. 21. 

3 " Qui diligentius earn rem cognoscere volunt, plerumque illo 
(in Britanniam) discendi causa pronciscuntur." — B. G. vi. 13. It is 
remarkable that the Druids, though they taught their religion 
orally, yet in ordinary matters used the Greek letters. " Quum in 
reliquis fere rebus, publicis privatisque rationibus, Grsecis utantur 
litteris." — B. G. vi. 14. 

4 B. G. iv. 20, v. 13. The principal Continental rivers frequented 
by British merchants were the Rhine, the Seine, the Loire, and Ga- 
ronne (Strab. lib. iv. 5). Strabo enumerates amongst the exports 
of Britain, com, cattle, gold, silver, iron, hides, slaves, and dogs ; and 



STATE OF BRITAIN. 11 

mention that a partial trade existed between Britain 
and more distant nations, as the Phoenicians. 1 It was 
only about a century after this that London, by its 
present name, was a city crowded with merchants and 
of world-wide celebrity. 2 The country also to the 
south had been cleared of its forests, and was under 
the plough. 3 The country, moreover, must have been 
intersected by good roads 4 , for the chief strength of 
the British army consisted of their war-chariots, the 
very construction of which requires no contemptible 
progress in mechanical skill. 5 When Cassivelaunus 
had been defeated, and had dispersed the main body 
of his troops, he still retained about him the enormous 
number of no less than four thousand war-chariots. 6 
But I do not know a greater confirmation of British 
advancement than the circumstance mentioned by Csesar, 



amongst the imports, ivory, bracelets, necklaces, amber, vessels of 
glass, and small wares (Strabo, iv. 5) ; and he says that the customs 
levied on the exports and imports between Gaul and Britain were 
more valuable than any tribute that could have been extorted from 
Britain if conquered (Strabo, ii. 5, iv. 5). This argues a very- 
advanced state of commerce, and therefore of civilisation. 

1 Strabo, lib. iii. 5. 

2 " Londinium cognomento quidem colonize non insigne, sed copia 
negotiatorum et commeatuum maxime celebre." — Tac. Ann. xiv. 33. 

3 Caes. B. G. v. 14. 

4 Caesar (B. G. v. 19) speaks of " omnibus viis notis semitisque." 

5 Every reader of the Bible must recollect the frequent allusion 
to the use of chariots in the wars of the Jews ; and every classic 
must recur to the chariots of the Greeks and Trojans on the banks 
of the Simois and Scamander. The Britons in the time of Caesar 
were probably not far behind the Jews in the times of their judges 
and kings, or the Greeks in the days of Homer. " "Apfxaai pev yap 
/caret tovq iroXifJiovg ^puivTai, KaQairep oi TraXaiol rdv 'EWi'/i'dtc ijpcoeg 
kv rw TjoauKW ttoXe/jiu) KE^prjrrdaL 7rapac)tcWrcu." — Diod. Sic. v. 21. 

6 Caes. B. G. v. 19. 



12 STATE OF BRITAIN. 

that, when he made war upon the Veneti to the west 
of Gaul, the Britons sent a fleet of ships to their 
assistance. 1 This could not have taken place unless the 
Britons had possessed an organised constitution, and 
formed continental alliances, and maintained a trained 
and permanent navy. There is one instance of their 
successful pursuit of the useful arts which I may not 
omit, as it does honour more particularly to my own 
county. The iron which was used by the Britons was 
manufactured by themselves in the maritime parts, i. e. 
amongst the Eegni, or people of Sussex. 2 It is familiar 
to all, that a great part of that county is still strewn 
up and down with the cinders of furnaces worked 
from the earliest ages until the commencement of the 
present century, when, as there was no coal in the 
district, and the wood was exhausted, they were 
abandoned for want of fuel. 

We now descend to details, and our first inquiry 
will be from what port the expedition of Csesar 
started. From the Ehine to the Seine there is scarcely 
a harbour or roadstead which has not at some time or 
other had its zealous advocates. 3 Some writers have 

1 B. G. iii. 9. 

2 " Nascitur ibi plumbum album [tin] in mediterraneis regionibus ; 
in maritimis ferrum, sed ejus exigua est copia: cere utuntur impor- 
tator — Ib.Y. 12. 

3 Mariette (in his Lettre a M. Bouillet sur V Article de Boulogne, 
Paris, 1847) enumerates the different publications in favour of the 
various theories, and classes them as follows : — 

In favour of Boulogne, 11 ; 
Wissant, 5 ; 
Calais, 5 ; 

Etaples, 2(13 miles S. of Boulogne on La Canche) ; 
Mardick, 1 (3 miles S.W. of Dunkirk) ; 
Authie, 1 (8 miles E. of the Somme, and 7 from 
La Canche). 



PORT OF EMBARCATIOX. 13 

thrown out a bold conjecture at random, and then 
endeavoured to bend the facts in accordance with their 
hypothesis. Others have taken only a partial view, 
and shut their eyes to circumstances which militated 
against their favourite position. Others have laboured 
under a misapprehension, from failing to catch the 
true sense of Caesar's Commentaries. I will mention 
some of the most plausible theories, and dispose of them 
in a few words. 

According to some, then, either Dunkirk or Grave- 
lines was the place of embarcation. One objection lies 
against both of them, viz. that the passage to Britain, 
where Caesar crossed, is said to have been only thirty 
miles 1 ; whereas Dunkirk and Gravelines are both of 
them much more. Besides, we are told that to the 
east of Caesar's port of embarcation was another haven, 
eight miles off 2 , and there is no such haven eight miles 
to the east of Dunkirk, though Dunkirk itself is only 
three leagues, or nine miles, from Gravelines. 

The theory of Calais appears, at first sight, more 
plausible 3 , but we must not judge of Calais as it was 
by Calais as it is. It was never used, so far as we 
know, by the Eomans, and accordingly no Eoman re- 
mains have been discovered there. It was not even a 
walled town, until just before the capture of it by the 
English, in the reign of Edward the Third. The coun- 



Thus the great preponderance of opinion is in favour of Boulogne. 
We have now to add the novel theory of the Astronomer Koyal in 
favour of the estuary of the Somme. 

1 B. G. v. 2. 2 B. G. iv. 22. 

3 It has been suggested that Calais takes its name from Calicius, 
thought to have some affinity to Portus Icius, but the proper name 
of Calais in Latin is not Calicius, but Caletum or Casletum. (See 
Mariette, p. 22.) 



14 PORT OF EMBARCATION. 

try about it, too, is flat and marshy, and consequently 
unhealthy for an encampment, and the inhabitants 
suffer severely from want of salubrious water. The 
port, also, could never have been larger than at pre- 
sent, and could not, therefore, have contained 560, 
or if we reckon tenders 800, vessels, on the occasion 
of the second expedition. When I was at Calais in 
1857, I walked round the whole port, including the 
wooden pier, and I could find room only at the utmost 
for 300 merchantmen. But Calais could not have been 
the place of embarcation for other reasons. It was not 
thirty miles from Britain, and had no haven to the east 
of it at the distance of eight miles. Gravelines, which 
is the nearest, is fifteen miles off. 

Wissant, between Cape Grrisnez and Cape Blancnez, 
was fixed upon as Caesar's port, by the learned D'An- 
ville 1 ; but, great as is the authority of that eminent 
geographer, his proposition is (under favour) wholly 
untenable. Wissant is no port at all, but only a sandy 
beach, four miles long, and the radius of curvature 
five and a half miles. 2 The chief arguments on which 
D'Anville relied were these : first, that the name 
of Wissant (the corruption of the Dutch Wit-sand 

1 Memoire sur le Port Icius, imprime dans le tome xxviii. p. 397, 
des Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. 

2 Archaeolog. vol. xxxiv. p. 231. Mariette, a native or inhabitant 
of Boulogne, thus describes Wissant : — " Les caps Blanez et Grinez 
a peine distant l'un de l'autre de six a sept kilometres, sont joint par 
une ligne de cotes, dont la courbe reguliere et rentrante forme une 
petite baie tranquiUe, au fond de laquelle on trouve un village. 
Wissant n'est plus une ville ; c'est tout au plus un village; c'est 
plutot un hameau egare dans un desert de sable." — p. 29. Wissant 
nourished as a port from a. d. 556 to a. d. 938. (lb. p. 30.) There 
are the remains of a camp there, called Caesar's Camp, but capable 
at the most of containing 500 men only. (lb. p. 35, 38.) " Wis- 



PORT OF EMBARCATION. 15 

or White-sand) has some resemblance to Portus Itius 1 , 
from which Caesar sailed ; and, secondly, that Caesar, 
before embarking, marched down to the Morini, whence 
was the shortest passage into Britain 2 , and that from 
Wissant to Dover is the directest Hue. But there is 
little similarity, even in sound, between Itius and Wis- 
sant or White-sand ; and as for the argument that Caesar 
took the shortest passage from Portus Itius, he tells us, as 
I conceive, the very reverse, for he selected Portus Itius, 
he says, because it was the most convenient, thereby 
implying that it was not the nearest port. He adds, 
also, that Portus Itius was thirty Eoman miles from 
Britain 3 , whereas Wissant is not much above twenty 
Eoman miles. 

The only other theory which I shall examine is that 
which has been recently broached by the distinguished 
astronomer to whom I have already alluded, Professor 
Airy, who maintains that Caesar set sail from the estuary 
of the Somme, and landed at Pevensey. Now I confess 

sant n'eut guere de port veritable avant le milieu du x e siecle, et 
j usque-la il avait du se suffire avec le port naturel forme par 
1' embouchure du petit (ruisseau) Rien de Sombre, port moins utile 
que ceux de Sangatte et d'Ambleteuse qui etaient deja florissants." 
— lb. p. 32. " The bay of Wissant is a solitary expanse, a curve 
of some seven or eight miles." — H L. L.\ Gent. Mag. vol. xxvi. 
(1846) p. 254. 

1 There are various readings of the name. It sometimes appears 
as Itius, sometimes as Icius, and sometimes as Iccius. It is 
generally thought to be the same word as that applied by Ptolemy 
to Cape Grisnez, "Ikiov aKpov, and, if so, the true reading would 
be Portus Icius. On the other hand, Strabo speaks of to "Itlov 
(ed. Tauchnitz, iv. 5), which implies that the reading in his time 
was Itius; as this is the more received form, it is adopted in 
the text. As to the various readings, see Somner's Portus Iccius, 
p. viii. 

2 B. G. iv. 21. 3 b. G. v. 2. 



16 PORT OF EMBARCATIOX. 

myself under no little obligation to the Astronomer 
Eoyal for much additional light which he has thrown 
upon the subject, but from the hypothesis that Caesar 
sailed from the estuary of the Somme I must dissent 
toto ccelo. It is at variance, as appears to me, with the 
whole of Caesar's narrative; and, while it commands 
attention from the high reputation of its advocate, can 
never make many converts. The error lies, if I may 
say so, in an unlucky interpretation of some passages 
in the Commentaries, and I refer more particularly to 
the three following. The first is this : Caesar, having 
resolved on the invasion, " goes with all his forces to 
the Morini, because thence was the shortest transit," 1 
from which it may be concluded that the port from 
which he sailed was at least in the country of the 
Morini ; but as the Somme would not, according to the 
common notion, be within their borders, the Professor 
renders the Latin proficiscitur not " goes " but " sets 
out for," and supposes that Caesar never actually reached 
the Morini. But a few lines farther, we find these 
words, " while Caesar tarries in these places in order to 
get the vessels ready" &c. 2 ; so that, evidently, Caesar 
had not only set out for, but also arrived in, the 
country of the Morini. Secondly, on the occasion of 
the second expedition, Caesar, speaking of himself in 
the third person, proceeds : " And he commands all 
to rendezvous at the Portus Itius, from which port 
he had found the passage into Britain the most 
convenient, being about thirty miles from the Con- 
tinent." 3 It is plain from this language that the 

1 B. G. iv. 21. 

2 " Dum in his locis Caesar navium parandarum causa moratur." — 
B. G. iv. 22. 

3 " Atque omnes ad Portum Itium convenire jubet, quo ex portu 









TORT OF EMBARKATION. 17 

traverse from Portus Itius was tliirty miles, and, if 
so, it could not be that from the Somme to Peven- 
sey, which is fifty-two nautical, or sixty statute, miles, 
not to mention that the estuary of a river cannot in 
strictness be called a port at all. - How, then, does the 
Professor deal with this difficulty % Why thus : he 
says that the thirty miles do not apply to the traverse 
from Portus Itius, but to the distance of Britain from 
the Continent generally. Now had Caesar ever made 
such an assertion, he would have laboured under an 
evident mistake, as the distance from Britain to the 
Continent, i. e. from Dover to Cape Grisnez or Cape 
Blancnez, is only about twenty Eoman miles ; but 
Cassar does not so state. The words " circiter millium 
passuum xxx," or about thirty Eoman miles, belong, 
from, their collocation and grammatical construction, 
to the traverse from Portus Itius (transjectum), and 
are not an observation (which would be very mat a 
propos) as to the distance of Britain from Gaul gene- 
rally. In the latter case the writer would have said, not 
" circiter millium passuum xxx," but " circiter millia 
passuum xxx." 1 Thirdly, on the return from Britain 
to Gaul, two of the transports (being, I suppose, more 
heavily laden than the rest, and bad sailers) missed the 

commodissimum in Britanniam transjectum esse eognoverat, circiter 
millium passuum xxx a continenti." — B. G. v. 2. 

1 Caesar is more accurate than subsequent writers ; for Diodorus 
Siculus makes the distance of Gaul from Britain twelve and a half 
miles only (lib. v. c. 21) ; Strabo, on the contrary, estimates the 
distance from Portus Itius of the Morini to Britain 320 stades, or 
forty miles (Strab. iv. c. 5.) ; and Pliny reckons the distance from 
Boulogne to Britain as much as fifty miles (Plin. N. H. lib. iv. s. 
30) ; and Dion also states the distance of Gaul from Britain to be 
fifty miles (Dion, xxxix. 50). 

C 



18 POET OF EMBARCATIOK 

Portus Itius for which they were bound, and, "paullo 
infra delatse sunt," were borne away a little to the 
south 1 , and the troops on landing were surrounded 
by the Morini, who attempted to cut them off. It is 
plain, therefore, that the coast to the south of Portus 
Itius was still in the country of the Morini, whereas 
the coast to the south of the estuary of the Somme 
would not be so, as the settlements of the Morini ex- 
tended westward as far only as La Canche. What is 
the Astronomer Eoyal's answer to this objection % He 
is driven to the necessity of saying that " paullo infra 
delatse sunt" means only that the ships were " carried 
down the wind !" Such an interpretation is, I venture 
to say, wholly inadmissible. Csesar invariably uses the 
words "inferior" (v. 13), "superior" (iv. 28), " ulterior" 
(iv. 23), with reference to the points of the compass ; 
and, considering himself as located at Eome, regards 
any departure from it towards the north as an ascent. 
There are other grave reasons against Airy's theory, 
but I pass them over for the present, as the force of 
them will be better appreciated hereafter, as we trace 
the progress of the invasion. 

1 have canvassed the opinions of the Astronomer 
Eoyal with the utmost freedom, and the only reparation I 
can make is to give him his revenge by bringing forward 
my own hypothesis. The port then from which Ceesar 
sailed was Boulogne. 2 All the arguments which have 
been urged against the other theories are so many 

> B. G. iv. 36. 

2 Strabo says that Caesar made the Seine his dockyard, " ivravda 
de /cat to vavrrrj-yiov avveffrriffaro Kdiffap 6 deoe, 7r\iti)v etc Trjv Bper- 
ravto/v" (lib. iv. 5), but Itium his sailing port, which he places 
amongst the Morini, "Mopivu>i> irap olg kan /cat to "Ytlov w expy'ivaro 
vavaradjjiu Kalaap 6 deog dialpwv elg rrjaov" (lib. iv. 5). 



PORT OF EMBARCATION. 19 

confirmations of this. For instance, we have seen that 
Cassar, in order to prepare for the expedition by col- 
lecting transports, marched into the country of the 
Morini, and Boulogne was not only a port, but was the 
port of the Morini 1 ; and, when Florus tells us that Cassar 
sailed from the 'port of the Morini, he can only mean 
Boulogne, which was universally stamped with that 
character. 2 Calais, no doubt, was also on the coast of 
the Morini, but was comparatively unknown and insig- 
nificant, as is evident from the Eoman military roads 
all converging, not to Calais, but to Gesoriacum or 
Boulogne. 3 It was at the latter port that Claudius 
embarked for the invasion of Britain 4 , and here also it 
is generally understood that Caligula had intended to 
embark for a similar object, and did actually construct 
a pharos for the benefit of voyagers to and fro between 
Boulogne and Britain. 5 Hence Lupicinus sailed by 



1 " Ultimos Gallicarum gentium Morinos, nee portu quern 
Gesoriacum vocant quicquam notius habet." — Pomp. Mela, iii. 2; 
" Mopivtiv Triaopiaicov ETrlveiov.' n — Ptolem. ii. 9. 3. " Haec [Britain] 
abest a Gessoriaco Morinorum gentis litore proximo trajectu quin- 
quaginta m." — Plin. N. H. iv. 30. 

2 " Quum tertia vigilia Morino solvisset e Portu minus quam 
medio die insulam ingressus est. " — Flor. iii. 10. 

3 The line of road is given in Antonin. Itin., viz. from Bagacum 
(Bavay) to Castellum (Cassel), and thence to Taruenna (Terou- 
enne), and thence to Gesoriacum or Bononia (now Boulogne). 
It is stated by Mariette, that, from coins found upon the road, it 
appears to have been made by Agrippa in B.C. 27; and, if so, 
Boulogne must have been the usual port of that coast at least very 
soon after Cassar's time. See Mariette, p. 47. 

4 " A Massilia Gesoriacum usque pedestri itinere confecto inde 
transmisit." — Suet. Claud. 17. That Claudius also took large 
supplies with him, see Dion, ix. 21. 

5 Suet. Calig. 46. It is certain that until about 100 years ago 

c 2 



20 PORT OF EMBARCATION. 

command of the Emperor Julian 1 , and Theodosius by 
command of Valentinian 2 ; hence also Constantius Chlo- 
rus 3 ; and hence, in A. D. 893, the Danes crossed to 
the mouth of the Lymen. 4 But further, I have 
already called attention to the distinguishing mark 
of the Portus Itius, that it was thirty Eoman miles, 
or twenty-seven and a half English miles, from the 
shores of Britain, and that is just the distance of 
Boulogne from Folkestone. Certainly the advertise- 
ments of the South-Eastern Eailway Company state 
Boulogne to be only twenty-six miles from Folkstone, 
but measurement is one thing and railway advertise- 
ment another. I asked one of the Company's own 
officials at Folkestone whether twenty-six miles was the 
actual distance, and he candidly confessed that it was 
considerably more. But there is another remarkable 
feature which identifies Boulogne as the Portus Itius. 
When Csesar sailed on his first expedition eighteen 
transports were detained by contrary winds at a haven 
eight miles 5 higher up, or more to the north. 6 When 
I turned my attention to this subject I was soon satisfied, 
on numerous independent grounds, that Boulogne must 
be the port from which Cassar sailed, but I was not 
then aware how far it would answer to the requisite 

there stood at Boulogne a Roman pharos which would exactly 
answer to that of Caligula. See a description of it in Dr. Ber- 
trand's History of Boulogne. It will be seen depicted in the old 
map inserted in this work. 

1 Ammian. Marc, cited Mon. Hist. Brit. p. lxxiii. 2 Ibid. 

3 Eumenius in Paneg. in Constant. Cses. c. 14. 

* Anglo-Saxon Chron. a.d. 893. 

5 " xviii onerariae naves, quae ex eo loco millibus passuum 
viii vento tenebantur, quo minus in eundem portum pervenire 
possent." — B. G. iv. 22. 

6 " Ulteriorem portum." — iv. 22. 





Copy of an ancient Map in the Cottoniarv 
Collection, at theBrMshMuseiun, without 
a date hut supposed to be of the 76 ^Century. 



E l/Oer Lithog. 



TORT OF EMBARCATIOff. 21 

of having another port eight miles to the north. I was 
walking one morning, on my return from the Continent, 
along the long wooden pier of Calais, when I fell into 
conversation with two French cures, and I broached 
the subject of Csesar's invasion. I found them the 
most unprejudiced witnesses, for they had no acquaint- 
ance with the classics, and took no interest in the 
matter ! I asked them if there were any haven some 
eight miles from Calais, and they told me that Gravelines 
was the nearest, which I understood to be about fifteen 
miles. I then repeated the same inquiry with refer- 
ence to Boulogne, when they told me that Ambleteuse, 
though now only used for small craft, had formerly 
been a port of much greater consequence, as was 
attested by the remains of ancient works there. On 
returning to the hotel I questioned the landlord about 
the distance of Ambleteuse from Boulogne, and he 
said two leagues and a half, which would make eight 
Eoman miles. 1 From subsequent investigation I find 
that Louis XIV. had proposed to make Ambleteuse a 
port of first-rate excellence, and that Napoleon after- 
wards entertained a similar project, but that both 
undertakings were eventually abandoned. 2 It is almost 

1 " Ambleteuse est a 8000 pas [8 miles] environ de Boulogne, et 
la rade d' Ambleteuse est encore a 8000 pas." — Mariette, p. 63. The 
same writer thus speaks of the port : " La Canche a Quantavicus, la 
Liane a Gesoriacum, la Slacq a Ambleteuse, formaient deja des ports 
plus grands " {lb. 33) ; and a writer in the Gent. Mag. speaks of it 
as follows : " The embouchure of a little channel for draining the 
valley forms at present the little harbour of Ambleteuse." — H. L. 
L.: Gent. Mag. vol. xxvi. (1846) p. 252. 

2 In the sixth century, Ambleteuse was noted for its trade and 
fortifications. In 1209 (when it was rebuilt after its destruction 
by the northern barbarians) excavations were made to form a 
port. In 1544, Henry the Eighth used it as a general depot for 

c 3 



22 PORT OF EMBARCATION. 

unnecessary to mention that James II., on abdicating 
the English throne, landed at Ambleteuse. 

It may be thought a slight circumstance, but is not 
to be passed unnoticed, that Csesar more than once 
speaks of Ports in the plural number 1 , and this is exactly 
the case if we assume Caesar's rendezvous to have been 
at Boulogne ; for then, not only was there the little 
port of Ambleteuse eight miles off, but also a still 
smaller one at Wimereux 2 , lying between Ambleteuse 
and Boulogne. Thus while the body of the fleet was 
assembled at Boulogne, some supernumeraries, particu- 
larly the smaller craft, would be lying at the two 
subordinate havens. 

Another argument in favour of Boulogne, which 
has considerable weight, arises from the name itself 
of Portus Itius. It is true that the identical word 
nowhere else occurs in history ; but Ptolemy, the 
famous geographer, in describing this part of the coast, 
calls Cape Grisnez, Cape Icius. 3 Even if the true 

warlike stores, when it became one of the safest and finest ports 
in the channel. A few years after it was taken by the French, 
and the fortifications rased. In 1680 Louis XIV. determined on 
restoring the port, and intrusted the work to the celebrated Vauban, 
when the sluice of the Slacq was made, and a basin dug and a pier 
added, but the full plan was never completed. In 1803 the right 
wing of Napoleon's grand army was stationed here, and the port 
and basin were cleared out. At present the village has a ruinous 
aspect, wearing only the tattered remnant of pristine splendour." — 
BertrancPs Hist, of Boulogne. 

1 B. G. iv. 36. v. 8. 

2 " At a short distance from Boulogne, on the coast, is the Port of 
Wimereux, formed by the mouth of the river bearing the same name. 
Half a league up the river is the village of Wimille." — BertranoVs 
History of Boulogne. The relative positions of Boulogne, Amble- 
teuse, and Wimereux will be seen upon the old map. 

3 " Merd rag tov *Lr\Koava Trora/jLov [Seine] EK^oXdg <f>pov$iog -Kora- 
jiov £»c€o\cu "Ituov ciitpoy" — ii. 9 3 1. 






PORT OF EMBARCATION. 23 

reading of the port in Caesar be Itius, the two names 
are very near to each other, and I believe all writers 
are agreed that they must be taken to be the same 
word. If this be so, how strong is the presumption 
that Boulogne must be the Portus Icius, for, with 
the exception of the comparatively small havens of 
Ambleteuse and Wimereux, it is the nearest port to 
Cape Icius. Assuming Cape Grisnez to be Cape Icius, 
it can hardly be supposed that the estuary of the 
Somme, as Airy suggests, can be the Portus Icius, 
when Boulogne, which is, and always has been, a port 
of much greater celebrity, intervenes between the 
Somme and the Cape. The very name also of Itius, 
Icius, or Iccius, may still be traced in the vicinity of 
Boulogne. A little above the town is the village of 
Isques, at Pont de Briques. 1 This bridge is of great 
antiquity, and till recently was the only one connecting 
the two banks of the Liane, and stood 2 in ancient times 

1 " Un petit village, assis agreablement sur la rive gauche de la 
Liane, a quelques pas de Boulogne et de l'enibouchure de cette ri- 
viere, annonce meme des pretensions a porter encore le nom de 
l'lcius de Cesar : c'est le village d'Isques, nom moderne qui 
parait etre un derive assez naturel du substantif latin. Interrogez 
les habitans de ce village, et ils vous diront que la tradition du 
passage de Cesar est encore vivante parmi eux, que la mer montait 
autrefois jusque a Isques, comme elle y monterait encore inaintenant 
sous les moulins a eau du Pont de Briques et le Pont de l'Ecluse de 
Boulogne, et que le lit de la Liane, bien plus large et plus profond 
qu'aujourd'hui formait un port d'un abord facile, et d'autant plus 
sur qu'il etait protege duvent par des coteaux voisins." — Mariette, p. 
24. This writer, who as a Boulognese seems a little jealous of Isques, 
yet admits that the name may have been derived from Portus Icius. 
The town was at all events known in the 9th century; for he adds 
in a note, " Isques, sous le nom dTska, existait avant les invasions 
des Normands au ix e siecle." — Harbaville, Memorial Hist, et Ar- 
chceol.t. ii. p. 80. 

2 It is so placed in the old map ; and in Bertrand's Hist. 

c 4 



24 PORT OF EMBARCATION. 

at the head of the estuary. Thus Isques would naturally 
give its name to the port below. Napoleon, when at 
Boulogne superintending the preparations for the inva- 
sion of England, is said to have fixed his head-quarters 
at Pont de Briques 1 , and as great commanders would 
be acted upon by similar influences, what more probable 
than that Caesar also should have pitched the praetorian 
tent at Isques, and then have spoken of the port below 
as Portus Icius 1 

I cannot help adding that the very circumstance of 
Napoleon's selection of Boulogne for his port of em- 
barcation is a strong argument for referring Caesar's 
expedition to the same spot. Both generals had the 
same object in view, and were at the head of pow- 
erful armies, and had collected a numerous flotilla. 
If Caesar had 800 vessels 2 , Napoleon had 1300 at 
Boulogne alone. 3 If Caesar made use of a port ' eight 
miles to the north of Portus Itius, and another yet 
nearer 4 , Napoleon quartered one division of his army, 
with a squadron of vessels, at Ambleteuse, and another 
at Wimereux. 5 If Caesar's ships were all flat-bottomed, 
in order that they might float in shallow water, and 
be more expeditiously freighted 6 , Napoleon adopted 
the very same principle for the very same reason, 
so that his vast fleet, even exceeding that of Caesar, 
was accommodated in the harbour and river of 
Boulogne, and yet was so conveniently stowed, that, 

of Boulogne, it is said anciently to have stood at the head of the 
estuary. 

1 Bertrand's Hist, of Boulogne. 

2 B. G. v. 8. 

3 Bertrand's Hist, of Boulogne. 

4 B. G. iv. 22. 5 See Bertrand's Hist, of Boulogne. 
6 " Ad celeritatem onerandi subductionesque." — B. G. v. 1. 



PORT OF EMBARCATION. 25 

on a rehearsal of the embarcation, by way of experi- 
ment, the whole army was put on board in the course 
of one hour and a half. l Had we the details of Caesar's 
armament, as of Napoleon's, the resemblance might, no 
doubt, be traced further, but this will suffice for our 
purpose. 

The Astronomer Eoyal observes, as an objection to 
Boulogne, that 5000 men could not have been shipped 
from it at a single tide ; but, if the whole of Napoleon's 
army could be put on board in an hour and a half, it 
was surely not beyond the reach of Caesar's genius to 
clear one half of that number from the port during the 
interval between one low water and another. I do not 
know that there would have been any difficulty about 
it 2 ; however, it is unnecessary to pursue the subject 
further, as Caesar nowhere says that he did ship off his 
whole fleet in a single tide. No doubt they all started 
at once from their anchorage at the mouth of the port, 
but they might have quitted the port itself before 
anchoring outside, in as many tides as their number 
required. 

Time and place are said to be the two eyes of 
history ; and, now that we have fixed the place of em- 
barcation, we proceed to determine the time ; and, if 
I am not mistaken, you will be surprised to find with 
what accuracy this point can be settled. 

The expedition was in the consulship of Cneius 

1 See Bertrand's Hist, of Boulogne. 

2 In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 893, is the following pas- 
sage : — "In this year the great army about which we formerly spoke 
came again from the Eastern kingdom westward to Boulogne, and 
there was shipped ; so that they came over in one passage (a?nne 
ptS), horses and all, and they came to land at Limene mouth with 
250 ships." 



26 TIME OF SAILING. 

Ponrpey and M. Crassus 1 , and was, therefore, certainly 
in B.C. 55. The season of the year is expressly men- 
tioned to have been when little of summer remained 2 , 
and we are, therefore, at once prepared to place it 
somewhere about August. But we can advance a step 
further; for repeated allusions, on Csesar's arrival in 
Britain, are made to the harvest as still continuing 3 , 
but drawing towards its conclusion 4 ; and we all know 
that in Kent and Sussex the harvest month is August. 
But again, Caesar returned from Britain a little before 
the equinox 5 , which the ancients reckoned to be 24th 
September, and his stay in Britain was, as we shall see 
hereafter, little more than three weeks, and this con- 
firms the deduction from other data, that the voyage 
was in August. But we can tell the very day of his 
embarcation, for Caesar informs us that on the fourth 
day of his arrival in Britain (the day of arrival included) 
occurred the full moon 6 ; and, as the harvest was nearly 
over, it must have been the full moon (if there was one) 
late in August. We turn to De Morgan's Booh of 
Almanacks, which gives us the full moons from 2000 
years B.C. to 2000 a.d., and we find that in B.C. 55, the 
year in question, the full moon was on the night of 

1 B. G. iv. 1. 

2 " Exigua parte aestatis reliqua." — B. G. iv. 20. 

3 " Frunientum ex aquis in castra quotidie (Caesar) conferebat." 
— 5. G. iv. 31. 

4 " Omni ex reliquis partibus demesso fruniento, una pars erat 
reliqua." — B. G. iv. 32. 

5 " Propinqua die aequinoctii." — B. G. iv. 36. 

6 "Post diem quartam quani est in Britanniam ventum, naves 

xvin . . . leni vento solverunt Eadem nocte accidit, ut 

esset luna plena." — B. G. iv. 28, 29. "Post diem quartam" 
means the fourth day current, including the day of the arrival as 
the first. Thus, " Neque te illo die, neque postero vidi, . . . post 
diem tertiam veni," &c. — Cic. Philip, ii. 35. 



TIME OF SAILING. 27 

Wednesday the 30th August, or, to speak strictly, at 
3 a.m. in the morning of Thursday the 31st August. 
This may be received as a fact capable of mathematical 
demonstration, and has, therefore, been assumed by all 
commentators as a fixed point. The fourth day before 
the full moon was, therefore, Sunday .the 27th August, 
on which day, consequently, Caesar reached Britain ; and, 
as he had set sail the night before, he of course started 
on Saturday the 26 th August. 

I need scarcely mention that Boulogne is a tidal 
harbour, in other words, that it can only be entered or 
quitted at high water, or at least not at low water. 
Now, to ascertain the state of the tide, we have only to 
determine the moon's age. At Boulogne it is high 
water at full moon at 11.20, and, as the tide is 48 
minutes earlier every preceding day, it follows that 
on 26th August, B.C. 55, being the fifth day before the 
full moon (the day of full moon included), it was high 
water about 8 p.m. At this time then, or an hour or 
two previously, the ships would be rapidly dropping 
down from the harbour and anchoring outside, ready 
to sail at the word of command. 1 Many hours would 
be consumed in emptying the port of its crowd of 
transports, and the fleet would scarcely be under weigh 
before midnight. But we are not left to conjecture on 
this head, as Caesar tells us that he started about the 
third watch, i.e. about twelve o'clock at night 2 ; and the 

1 It seems to be a general notion that Caesar sailed at high water 
or at the ebbing of the flood, and this would be true if it be meant 
that his ships then dropped down from the harbour : but it would 
not be true in the sense of actually weighing anchor on his voyage 
across the channel ; for, as he did not set sail until midnight, high 
water would by that time have been long past. "'ETripcuTe £e Kara tov 
Kaipov rfjg au7rwr£wc" — Appian, cited Monum. Hist. Brit. p. 
50. "Tate afX7rojT£(TL rov 7re\dyovg ffv/iOejOoaei'oi." — lb. 

2 " Tertia fere vigilia." — B. G. iv. 23. 



28 CESAR'S ARMY. 

moon, which had been long up, was nearly at the 
full, and would thus facilitate both the embarcation 
and passage. 

While Caesar is crossing the channel let us form an 
estimate of the invader's force. He tells us that he took 
with him two legions, the 7th and the celebrated 10th, 
in eighty transports. 1 A legion, in theory, consisted of 
ten cohorts, and each cohort of three maniples, and 
each maniple of two centuries, so that, if a century 
contained, as it was supposed to do, 100 men, the total 
number in a legion would be 6000. But, in fact, a legion 
had seldom if ever its full strength, and usually con- 
sisted of about 4,200 men, so that Cassar's two legions on 
this occasion would probably not exceed 8,400. We 
may arrive at much the same result by another process. 
Of his eighty transports, Csesar lost twelve in Britain, 
which would reduce them to sixty-eight. Two of them, 
on their return to Gaul, were drifted beyond the port 
for which they were bound, and the troops on board 
were obliged to land some way off to the south, and it 
is incidentally mentioned that these two transports 
carried together 300 men, or 150 each. 2 Now, if every 
one of the sixty-eight vessels was freighted with the 
same number, the total amount would be 10,200 ; but 
the two unlucky transports may have been thrown 
out of their course from being the most heavily laden, 
and if so it may well be supposed that the whole army 
was not much above 8,400. Professor Airy assumes 
8000, and this calculation cannot be very wide of the 
truth. 3 

1 " Navibus circiter lxxx onerariis coactis, contractisque, quod 
satis esse ad duas legiones transportandas existimabat." — B. G. 
iv. 22. 2 B. G. iv. 37. 

3 A writer of the fourth century observes : " C. Caesar cum decern 



CESAR'S ARMY. 29 

As to the cavalry we are much more at a loss for 
data. Caesar had altogether in Gaul eight legions and 
4000 horse 1 , which would give 500 horse for each 
legion. This calculation would yield for the two legions 
which passed into Britain a complement of 1000 
cavalry. This inference, however, would be unjust, as 
in any expedition the relative ratios of infantry and 
cavalry were extremely variable, and depended alto- 
gether on circumstances. Thus in the following year 
Caesar left three legions only in Gaul and 2000 horse, 
and took with him to Britain five legions and yet only 
2000 horse. 2 If indeed we might judge of the number 
of cavalry in the first invasion from that employed in 
the second, then as five legions were accompanied with 
2000 horse, two legions would require 800 horse. 
All that we can say with certainty is that the cavalry 
did not exceed the number, whatever it was, which 
could be conveyed in eighteen vessels ; for we have 
already had occasion to mention that eighteen trans- 
ports were wind-bound at Ambleteuse, and so unable 
to reach Boulogne, and that Caesar ordered the cavalry, 
as the more movable body, to ride over to Amble- 
teuse, and, embarking there, to follow him with all 
speed. 3 If these eighteen transports were of equal 
burden with the rest, then as we know that two 
ships carried 300 men, or 150 each, and a vessel 
which could be freighted with 150 men would take 
from forty to fifty horses, say forty-five 4 , we may infer 
that the eighteen ships conveyed about 800 cavalry, so 

legionibus quas quaterna millia Italorum habuerant, per annos octo 
ab alpibus ad Rhenum usque Gallias subegit, ... in Britanniam 
transivit." — Rufus Sextus, cited Mon. Hist. Brit. p. lxxi. 

1 B. G. v. 5. 2 B. G. v. 8. 

3 B. G. iv. 23. 4 Horsley's Britain. 



dO PLACE OF LANDING^ 

tliat tlie force which accompanied the expedition 
may be reckoned at about that amount. 

It may appear a step of singular boldness that 
Caesar should have attempted the conquest of the 
island with such inadequate means ; but it must be re- 
membered that Caesar, with all his exertions, had been 
unable to obtain any reliable information, and that he 
could not tell whether the approaching struggle was to 
be with a nation of heroes or a hive of drones. 

We left Caesar and his fleet under sail from Boulogne. 
The transports for the soldiers were eighty in number ; 
but besides these there were a few fast-sailing war- 
galleys, or triremes, Caesar himself embarking in one 
of them, and distributing the rest amongst the officers 
of his army, the Quaestor, the Legates, and the Prefects. 1 
The wind must have been favourable, for as the ships 
at Ambleteuse had been prevented by it from sailing to 
Boulogne it was blowing from the S. W., and was, 
therefore, just what was desirable for a passage from 
Boulogne to Britain. 

The object of Caesar's starting at twelve o'clock at 
night was, apparently, that he might land by morning, 
and so have the whole day before him for military 
operations. Accordingly, at 10 A. M. (or the fourth 
hour, as the Bomans always reckoned from 6 A. m.) on 
27th August, Caesar was off the coast of Britain. 
What part of the coast was it 1 Caesar had embarked 
from the country of the Morini because they were 
nearest to Britain 2 , and he tells us in another place that 
Kent, the eastern corner of the island, was the place 
for which ships from Gaul were commonly bound. 3 

1 " QuEestori legatis praefectisque distribuit." — B. G. iv. 22. 

2 B. G. v. 2. 

3 " Hujus lateris [the south] alter angulus qui est ad Cantium, 



PLACE OF LANDING. 31 

We should suppose, therefore, that Csesar followed the 
usual track, and made for one of the ports which then 
as now were the most frequented, viz. Dover or Folke- 
stone. Indeed we are told as much by Dion, who says 
that Cassar sailed from the usual port to the usual port, 
but that he could not land at the latter because it had 
been preoccupied by the enemy. 1 And it may be 
added, that, unless he pursued the usual track, how 
could the Britons have known where to encounter 
the debarcation'? But let us hear Caesar himself, who 
has drawn a sketch of the coast such as it presented 
itself on his first approach. "The nature of the 
place," he says, " was on this wise : the sea was so hem- 
med in by confined mountains that a javelin could 
be thrown from the higher ground upon the shore." 2 
Quintus Cicero, the brother of Mark Tully, and one 
of the generals in Caesar's army on the second expe- 
dition, describes, in his letters home, the outposts of 
Britain as defended by stupendous masses of natural 
bulwarks. 3 To what part of Albion can this descrip- 
tion answer, but to the high chalk cliffs frowning 
between Sandgate and the South Foreland, which do 
indeed so hem in the sea that the idea of a hostile 

quo fere ex Gallia naves appelluntur, ad orientem solem spectat." — 
B. G. v. 13. 

1 " Kai tov jjlev SiEKirXovv »ca0' 6 juaXiora ixpfjv jietcl riov tte£uv 
£7rotr)aaTO' oh fievTOL Kal r) e$ei rcpoaiayEV, oi yap BpErravot, tov 
ettittXovv avrov TrpoTrvdo/jiEvoi, Tag KarapaEig cnraaag rag wpb 
rrjg tiTTEipov ovffag 7rpo(,arf\a€ov." — Dion, xxxix. 51. How 
accurately the words describe Dover and Folkestone ! 

2 " Cujus loci haec erat natura : adeo montibus angustis mare 
continebatur, ut ex locis superioribus in littus telum adjici posset." 

— B. G. iv. 23. 

3 " Constat enim aditus insulse esse munitos mirificis molibus." 

— Cic. Ep. Att. iv. 16. 



OZ PLACE OF LANDING. 

descent there, in the face of an enemy, would be mili- 
tary madness. Airy would have us believe that these 
" mountains " and " stupendous masses " are to be found 
near Hastings ; but as the Astronomer Eoyal bases his 
supposition on the assumption that Csesar sailed from 
the Somme, which we have shown to be untenable, we 
need not here discuss the matter with him further. 

If Csesar was disappointed at seeing the natural fea- 
tures of the country, he was probably much more so 
at another sight which riveted his gaze ; the landing- 
places at the ports were bristling with hostile spears 1 , 
and the heights above, also, were covered with troops, 
not rude savages, but in good martial array. 2 The 
merchants had studiously kept back from the Eo- 
mans all information of British affairs ; but every 
movement of the invaders had been instantly trans- 
mitted from Gaul to Britain, and the consequence 
was, that, rapidly as the Eoman legions had been col- 
lected and transports provided, the islanders, or at 
least the inhabitants of Kent, with no doubt their 
compatriots of Sussex, had assembled en masse to 
oppose the descent. Csesar, with his officers, had 
preceded the rest of the fleet for the very purpose 
of preparing for the debarcation, of examining the 
coast, and taking measures accordingly while the 
transports were coming up. To effect a landing then 
and there would, of course, be giving an immense and 
unnecessary advantage to the enemy, and he would not 
run the risk. He, therefore, lay at anchor until all the 
transports had arrived, and spent the interval in sum- 



1 Dion, xxxix. 51. 

2 " Atque ibi in omnibus collibus expositas hostium copias firmatas 
conspexit." — B. G. iv. 23. 



TLACE OF DEBAKCATIOX. 33 

moning his officers together, and explaining his views. 
It would seem that Caesar, like Wellington and all great 
commanders, kept his counsels to liimself until the mo- 
ment of action ; it was only now, for the first time, that 
he produced the survey made by Volusenus, pointed 
out the mode of attack, and assigned to every one his 
allotted post. 1 

By 3 o'clock in the afternoon (called by the Eomans 
the ninth hour) the whole fleet was assembled ; 
and we may here observe, by the way, that, as from 
Boulogne to Dover is in round numbers twenty-eight 
miles, and Caesar liimself, in a war-galley, had been ten 
hours on the way, viz. from twelve at night to ten 
in the morning, the average speed would be nearly 
three miles an hour. The transports, on the other hand, 
had consumed fifteen hours on the passage, viz. from 
twelve at night to three in the afternoon, which yields 
an average of only about two miles an hour. 2 

It was at 3 o'clock, then, in the afternoon, on Sun- 
day, the 27th August, a.d. 55, that Caesar weighed 
anchor from before Dover, preparatory to disembarking; 
and now comes the important and much-agitated ques- 
tion : Which way did he sail ; to the left or right, to 
the west or east ? Let us first consider, a priori, what 
a prudent commander might be expected to do under 
similar circumstances. The usual ports in front of Mm 
were preoccupied and impracticable. To the right he 
would see the precipitous chalk cliffs stretching away to 
the east till they terminated at the South Foreland, 
when he would lose sight of land altogether, and on ] y 

1 B. G. iv. 23. 

2 According to Appian, the voyage from Gaul to Britain was half 
a day, or twelve hours : u "Eort £' avrolg 6 SicnrXovg ij/Jiiav yfiepag^ 
— Appian, cited Monum. Hist. Brit. 50. 

D 



34 PLACE OF DEBARCATIOX. 

the broad expanse of ocean would meet his eye. The 
lowlands about Warmer or Deal would not be visible ; 
and it is at least doubtful whether Yolusenus had 
included them in his survey. On his left was a very 
different prospect ; for, tracing the line of cliffs west- 
ward, he could not fail to observe that they terminated 
at Sandgate, and that a broad level plain there suc- 
ceeded. I need not produce arguments to show how 
peculiarly favourable to a hostile descent is the great 
marsh lying between Sandgate and Eye. The bones 
that are piled in the crypt of Hythe church (a mass 
twenty-eight feet long, six broad, and eight high) bear 
witness of the fierce encounters which have there taken 
place between the Britons and their invaders on the 
British Armageddon ; and the martello towers that still 
line the shore, and the defensive military canal carried 
along the edge of the marsh, attest the well-founded 
apprehension in our own day, that here, if ever, the Con- 
tinental hosts will attempt a burglarious entry into the 
islanders' home. It was also late in the day with 
Cassar, and, as the sun would set at seven, he had only 
four hours to choose his ground and effect a landing. 
But there is another consideration arising out of the 
plan of operations which he had just unfolded to his 
officers. The enemy were in such numbers that to 
force a descent with only 8,000 men in their presence 
was, if not a desperate, yet a dangerous, undertaking. 
His object, therefore, was, by the rapidity of his move- 
ments, to outstrip his foes, and disembark a sufficient 
number of troops before they could come up. 1 It was 



1 u Ad nutum et ad tempus omnes res ab iis administrarentur." — 
B. G. iv. 23. " "E00/7 tt}q yfjg KparrjcraQ Trplv ty^v TrXeiio (TVfi€oi']deiav 
eXdeiy." — Dion, xxxix. 51. 



TLACE OF DEBARCATIOX. 35 

absolutely necessary, therefore, that he should take 
advantage of the tide, or, at all events, that he should 
not mar his designs by stemming a strong current. 

But we need not theorise upon the subject, as Cassar 
gives us incidentally a piece of information which is 
conclusive. " Having got," he says, " the wind and the 
tide at the same time in his favour, he gave the signal 
and hoisted anchor, and, advancing about eight miles 
from that place, he brought his ships to at an open and 
level shore." 1 Thus he certainly sailed with the tide, 
and, if we can only discover the direction of the tide, 
we shall know which way Csesar turned the head of his 
vessel. Now it may seem at first sight a somewhat 
difficult problem to calculate the current of the Channel 
at 3 o'clock on a particular day nearly 2,000 years 
ago; but the phenomena of nature are unchangeable, and 
I shall satisfy you that the question can be solved with 
little trouble and with the greatest exactness. The 
tides, it is well known, occur twice in the twenty-four 
hours, and each time about twenty-four minutes later, 
so that the corresponding tide on each successive day is 
forty-eight minutes later 2 : thus, if it be high water at 
Dover to-day at 12 o'clock at noon, it will be high 
water there to-morrow at twelve minutes before 1 p. m. 
After a cycle of fourteen days, these tides recur in the 
same order of succession. The reason is that the new 
moon and full moon both act upon the ocean in a 
similar manner ; and, during the interval between the 

1 " Et ventum et aestum uno tempore nactus secundum, dato signo 
et sublatis anchoris, circiter millia passuum viii ab eo loco pro < 
gressus, aperto ac piano littore naves constituit." — B. G. iv. 2£. 

2 The Tidal Tables say fifty minutes per day. " The mean 
interval of time between two consecutive high waters is about 
12h. 25m." — Tidal Tables for 1859, p. 99. 

d 2 



36 PLACE OF DEBARCATION. 

new moon and full moon, and, of course, equally be- 
tween the full moon and new moon, the tide runs the 
whole round of ebb and flow until it returns back to 
the same hour. The period of one lunation, or one 
revolution of the moon round the earth, is twenty-nine 
days and a half, so that from new moon to full, and 
again from full moon to new, is, in strictness, not four- 
teen days, but fourteen days and three quarters. It is 
evident from this that, in order to find the time of high 
water for any particular day, we need only determine 
the time of it at new or full moon, and the intervening 
periods of ebb and flow can then be ascertained by 
allowing forty-eight minutes per diem from the last 
new or full moon. Accordingly, the tables of the tides 
are usually calculated for the new and full moons only. 
However, there are slight disturbing influences which 
in some degree vary the general rule, and, to enable 
the mariner to follow them without difficulty, there are 
published annually, under the direction of the Admi- 
ralty, "The Tidal Tables for the English and Irish 
Ports," 1 which show at a glance when it is high water 
at the principal places round the coasts of England and 
Ireland for every day in the year. 

In speaking of the tides we must distinguish between 
the landsman's tide and the seaman's tide. The lands- 
man standing on the shore, beholds the water rise and 
fall, and thinks of the tide with reference to its height 
and depression only, whereas the seaman cares little for 
the rise or fall, which he does not see, but is very atten- 
tive to the current caused by the tide, which aids or 
impedes the progress of his vessel. The direction of 

1 Published by J. 0. Potter, 31, Poultry, Loudon ; and 11, King 
Street, Tower Hill, London. 



PLACE OF DEBARCATIOX. 37 

the current is as regular as the rise and fall of the tide, 
but both are subject to occasional disturbances from 
the action of the wind or the state of the atmosphere. 
These variations, however, it is believed, seldom if ever 
exceed an hour either in the time of high or low 
water, or of the turn of the current. As the British 
Channel is so constantly covered by the mercantile 
navy of England, great pains have been taken to ascer- 
tain the turn of the tide in this part. We are here 
concerned only with that in the Straits of Dover, and 
I shall, therefore, content myself with stating the rule 
laid down for the guidance of mariners in the annual 
referred to. The Admiralty direction then is, that the 
stream off Dover sets westward at four hours after 
high water, and runs west for the next seven hours, 
and then turns eastward and runs so for the next 
five hours. 1 Thus, to ascertain the current or direction 
of the tide at Dover, we find first the time of high 
water there, and four hours after that the stream begins 
to run west, and will so continue for seven hours, 
when it will again turn east, and run so for the next five 
hours. We have now to apply this principle to the year 
B. c. 55. The full moon was on the 31st of August 
at 3 A. M. I turn to the Tide Tables published by au- 
thority for the month of August of the present year, 

1 " About one mile S.S.E. of the South Foreland Lighthouse, the 
stream begins to set to the eastward about lh. 30m. before high- 
water on the shore at Dover, and runs from N.E. by E. to E. N.E. 
about five and a half hours, or till four hours after high water. It 
then turns and sets W.S.W. quarter W. about seven hours. At 
Dover the flowing stream very seldom continues more than five 
hours, and sometimes scarcely so much. It is nearly the same at 
Eamsgate. To the northward of the South Foreland the streams 
change their direction to N.E. half N., and S.W. half S. " — Potter's 
Tide Tables, 1859, p. 110. 

d 3 



38 PLACE OF DEBARCATIOK 

1859, and I find that the moon will be at the full on 
the 13th of August. As regards the moon, therefore, 
the 31st of August, B.C. 55, and 13th of August, 1859, 
are corresponding days. To find, then, the time of high 
water at Dover on the 27th of August, B.C. 55, when 
Cassar arrived (being the fourth day before the 31st of 
August, when was the full), we have only to look for 
the time of high water at Dover on the 9th of August, 
1859, being the fourth day before the 13th of August, 
when will be the full. High water at Dover on the 
9th of August, 1859, will, according to the Tables, be 
at 7.31 a.m. It was, therefore, high water at 7.31 
a.m. at Dover on the 27th of August, B.C. 55. But 
at four hours after high water the tide runs west, and 
so continues for seven hours; therefore, at 11.31 
A.M., on the 27th of August, B.C. 55, the stream began 
to run west, and held on in the same direction until 
6.31 p.m. 1 At 3 o'clock, therefore, on the 27th of 
August, B.C. 55, the current was flowing westward at 
its maximum velocity, and consequently, as Caesar sailed 
at 3 o'clock on the 27th of August, B.C. 55, in the 
same direction as the tide, he must have steered west- 
ward toward Eomney Marsh, and could not possibly 
have made for Deal. 2 



1 Lieutenant Burstal does not differ much, for he computes " that 
during the interval between 12.40 and 6.50 p.m. of Aug. 27th 
(b. c. 55), the stream was setting to the westward, and therefore if 
Caesar weighed anchor at 3.30 p.m. the stream was setting to the 
W.S.W."— DunhirCs Hist, of Kent, vol. ii. 73. 

2 As the place of debarcation depends altogether on the direction 
of the tide at 3 o'clock p.m. on 27th of August, b. c. 55, — that 
is, the fourth day before the full moon, which was on August 31st at 
o a.m., — it may be as well to see the range of the tide for every day 
before full moon throughout the current year 1859. From the 



PLACE OF DEBARCATION. 39 

But Caesar tells us in the passage I have quoted, that 
he had not only the tide, but also the wind in his 
favour, and this may possibly suggest an apparent 
objection — viz., that if the wind was in his favour in 
coming from Boulogne to Dover, it must have been in 
the south or west ; and then, if it still continued in that 
quarter, and Caesar sailed before it, he must have 
steered to the east. But, in the first place, supposing 
the wind to have blown from the south, it would have 
been favourable to a movement, from a point opposite 
Dover, either to the east or west. However, I would 
rather offer an explanation, which will convert the objec- 
tion into an argument the other way ; viz. that the wind 
had, in fact, veered round since the passage from Bou- 
logne. Thus, Csesar says that he started from his an- 
chorage off Dover, having got the wind in his favour, and 
the Latin word nactus implies that the wind had under- 

Tide Tables it will be seen that on January 14th, being the fourth day 
before the full moon, high water at Dover is at 5.31 A. m. 

February 13 6.13 

March 14 6. 8 

April 13 7.13 

May 12 6.55 

June 11 7.20 

July 11 7.55 

August 9 7.31 

September 8 8.27 

October 7 7.47 

November 6 . . . .7.44 

December 6 7.31 

Thus the earliest high water at Dover is at 5.31 a. m., and the 
latest at 8.27 a.m., and as the stream turns west at four hours after 
high water and continues for seven hours, it turns at the earliest at 
9.31 a. m. and runs till 4.31 p.m. and turns at the latest at 12.27 p.m. 
and runs till 7.27 p.m. In no case, therefore, would the tide be 
running east at 3 p. m. 

d 4 



40 PLACE OF DEBARCATION. 

gone a change. And this conclusion is strongly evi- 
denced by another circumstance, which, except on this 
supposition, is inexplicable. When he embarked at 
Boulogne he despatched the cavalry to Ambleteuse, eight 
miles off, with orders to follow him with all haste 1 ; but, 
much to Csesar's disappointment, they did not leave that 
haven for Britain until the fourth day after 2 , and no 
plausible reason can be given for this except that, for 
the whole of this interval, the wind was contrary ; that 
is, the wind had shifted. 

At 3 o'clock p.m., on Sunday 27th August, B.C. 55, 
Caesar quitted his moorings before Dover, and sailed 
to the west. For six or seven miles he had on his 
right the beetling bulwarks of the island, the pre- 
cipitous "cliffs. The cavalry and charioteers of the 
Britons, followed by the infantry, might be seen at 
the same time moving along the heights and keeping 
pace with the fleet, and ready to encounter the enemy 
in any attempt at debarcation. On nearing Sandgate, 
and between that place and Hythe, Caesar would see 
the cliffs retiring inland, and leaving a narrow triangu- 
lar strip of level ground between themselves and the 
sea. Here it may be thought, perhaps, that Caesar 
landed, but a little reflection will lead to a different 
conclusion. As you stand on the high cliffs and look 
down upon this triangular plain, the extent of it appears 
sufficient to accommodate a small army, but not so as 
you sail along the coast. On reaching it, as I rowed from 
Dover to Hythe, I immediately concluded in my own 

1 " Equitesque in ulteriorem portum progredi, et naves conscen- 
dere, ac se sequi jussit : ab quibus cum paullo tardius esset admini- 
stratum," &c. — B. G. iv. 23. 

2 " Post diem quartum quam est in Britanniam ventum." — B. G. 
iv. 28. 



PLACE OF DEBARCATIOX. 41 

mind that the Eoman eagles could never have alighted 
here from want of space. The cliffs, too, in the back- 
ground are so near as to give an enemy an immense 
advantage, and the seashore could scarcely be called 
apertum littus. The only temptation to place the landing 
on this spot is, that at the eastern corner rises the brow 
of ShornclhTe, a high platform (which has ever been, 
and is still, a favourite military station) ; and, at the 
south-western corner of Shorncliffe, and therefore over- 
looking the triangular plain, is an ancient Eoman camp, 
which, of course, passes for Caesar's camp. I cannot 
think, however, that it has in reality any connection 
with Caesar. His camp on this occasion was apparently 
on the sea-beach, so as to give protection to the war- 
galleys drawn up on land. We know also that the 
Britons had a full view of it, as they despised its narrow 
dimensions ; but, if perched on the edge of Shorncliffe, 
it could scarcely have been made the subject of minute 
examination. The shore also just beneath Shornchffe 
is any tiring but rnolle or soft 1 , as the rocks here rise 
abruptly out of the waves. Caesar then sailed by this 
triangular strip, and rounding the precipitous cliffs 
which had so long defied him 2 , came to the creek of 
Limne. 

But here, to make myself intelligible, I must notice 
the extraordinary changes which have occurred in this 
part of the coast. I am not at all disposed to be- 
lieve in general the large and loose statements fre- 
quently broached as to the alterations of the earth's 
surface within the memory of man. I was, therefore, 
at first very incredulous as to the assertions respecting 

1 B. G. v. 9. 

2 " " Aicpav TLva Trepnr\eu(ja.Q." — Dion, xxxix. 51. 



42 PLACE OF DEBAKCATIOtf. 

the growth of terra Jirma in this quarter, but I am 
satisfied from personal observation that the sea here 
has to a great extent retired, and that what is related 
upon the subject may not improbably be the truth. 
Possibly the whole of Eomney Marsh may in antedi- 
luvian times have been covered by the sea, and have 
been gradually formed by the accumulation of shingle 
through countless ages; at least, wherever I visited 
the military canal which laves the foot of the ele- 
vated border round the marsh, the soil, which has 
been excavated, is decidedly the same shingle as is still 
cast up by the tide. It is said that Dungeness Point 
advances from this accretion about seven feet annu- 
ally. But to pass from the period of the Ichthyosauri 
to that of the first century before Christ, of which 
we are speaking, the marsh, though its general confi- 
guration must have been the same then as at present, 
yet presented in some respects very different features. 
Instead of one regular curvilinear line from Sandgate 
to Dungeness, there were two inlets which have since 
been silted up. The first was at Eomney, where 
originally was the mouth of the river Eother, and by 
which the Danes on one occasion ascended as far as 
Appledore. The port was first at Old Eomney, and 
then, as the sea retreated, at New Eomney, and then, 
when the Eother (from the effect, it is said, of inunda- 
tions during a fearful storm) was diverted from its 
channel, and entered the sea at Eye, the port of Eomney 
ceased altogether; and, at the present day, no one who did 
not examine the ground very curiously, would dream 
that such a haven had ever existed. The other inlet, 
with which we are more immediately concerned, was 
that between Dymchurch and Hythe, and extended 
inland as far Lympne or Limne. Indeed, the name 



PLACE OF DEBARCATION. 43 

of Linme signifies in the old British a haven 1 , and corre- 
sponds to the Greek word Ai^'v, a port ; and Ptolemy's 
xaivog Xipji/, is commonly thought to mean Limne. 2 
The strong south-easterly winds (for Dungeness Point 
is a shelter from the coast) gradually choked up the 
port of Limne, and the haven then shifted more to the 
east, where West Hythe now stands. But the same 
causes still operated, and West Hythe in its turn be- 
came deserted by the sea, and then the haven was 
transferred to Hythe. This was in the time of the 
Saxons, for Hythe in Saxon is the same as Limne in 
British and Greek, and signifies a harbour. The histo- 
rical testimony that Limne and West Hythe and Hythe 
have been successively havens at the end of the bay 
or inlet is unexceptionable, and indeed skeletons of 
vessels have been dug up at Limne where now is a 
rich pasture. But Non vedo non credo, " Seeing is be- 
lieving ; " and if any one doubt of this metamorphosis 
from sea to terra fir ma, let him walk from Hythe, as I 
have done, to the heights overlooking the marsh, and 
he will observe the plain below him lying in ridges or 
waves, as if the ocean had only just quitted its embrace. 
Even in the eighth century Leland speaks of Hythe in 
the following terms : — " The haven is a pretty road and 
lyeth meetly straight out of Boulogne. It crooketh so 
by the shore along, and is so backed from the main sea 
by shingle, that small ships may come up a large mile 
as in a sure gut." 3 On looking at the old maps 4 of 

1 Lambarde's Perambul. 184. 

2 Ptolemy, ii. 3, 4. The state of this part of the marsh about 
a. d. 1600 will be seen from the annexed map, copied from one 
in the Cottonian Collection at the British Museum. 

3 See Hasted' s Kent. 

4 A copy of an old map in the Cottonian Collection at the British 



44 THE LANDING. 

this part of the coast, I find what I have not seen 
noticed elsewhere, viz. that the bay of Linine contahied 
within it two islands. An anecdote related of one of 
Csesar's soldiers refers to an island in connection with 
the camp, and I had always supposed, until I met with 
these ancient charts, that the story was an idle inven- 
tion ; but the circumstance, so apocryphal before, be- 
comes thus no inconsiderable argument for placing the 
descent in this locality. 

Csesar had reached the creek of Limne, and on the 
western side of it was the shore where the debarcation 
was to be made. It was planum or flat as he describes 
it, for there was not a single elevation throughout the 
whole marsh, and it was also apertum or open, for the 
heights to the north were at least a mile distant. The 
sea-beach was also molle, or soft, not with mud or ooze, 
which would be a very inconvenient landing-ground, 
and ill adapted for a conflict, but soft in a sailor's sense, 
i. e. it consisted of shingle, than which nothing can be 
more favourable to the security of vessels. The pebbles 
being rounded do not cut the ships' timbers, and being 
also loose offer no resistance. Sand, on the contrary, 
which a landsman might consider soft, is, in naval 
phraseology, of the hardest kind, as it has no " give," 
and a ship beating against it would soon be shattered 
to pieces. I am glad to find, even in the Astrono- 
mer Eoyal's dissertation, the admission that " this beach 

Museum is inserted in this work. Harris's History of Kent gives 
an old map from Dugdale, which represents two islands before 
Hythe, and a long gut (that alluded to by Leland) running eastward. 
So also does the map in Speed's History. The map of Eichard of 
Cirencester points out nothing remarkable as to Eomney Marsh, but 
the scale is too small to furnish an argument either way. The 
oldest maps of England will be found in Gough's British Topo- 
graphy. 




ntannicus 



THE LANDING. 45 

is very favourable for landing." The spot also offered 
other advantages. The interposition of the creek 
obliged the enemy to make a circuit, and if expedition 
were used, Caesar might land before the British foot 
could come up. As for the cavalry and charioteers, 
they were already there and lined the shore. It may 
also have entered into his calculations that the harbour 
of Limne, though not capable of containing his fleet, and 
now probably occupied by the enemy, and commanded 
by the heights on the north, would, so soon as he was 
in possession of the country, be a useful medium of 
communication with Boulogne, the corresponding port 
on the opposite coast. On his left, too, was the bay of 
Dungeness, where, except the wind blew from one 
particular quarter, the east, any number of vessels might 
ride at anchor in safety. 

It was now between five and six o'clock in the 
afternoon, and the tide still rising 1 ; a very favourable 
circumstance for the debarcation, and which had no 
doubt been counted upon. The wind was from the 
east, and the waves were tumbling in, but not with 
sufficient violence to offer any serious obstacle to the 
descent. Caesar, therefore, gave the word of command, 
and the ships, so far as the shelving shore permitted, 
were run upon th e beach. The horsemen and charioteers 
of the Britons which clouded the strand now poured 
such a shower of javelins upon the Eoman galleys that 
even Caesar's hardy veterans dared not face the storm 
and spring from their ships. 2 Besides the weight of their 
own arms they had also to buffet the waves, and in 
ignorance themselves of the localities were engaged 

1 High water at Hythe on that day (27th Aug.) at 8 r. m. 

2 " Nostros navibus egredi prohibebant." — B. G. iv. 24. 



46 THE LANDING. 

with a foe to whom the shallows were familiar. Csesar 
confesses that his men shrank from the conflict. The eye 
of the commander looked anxiously round, and in 
order to check the fierce onset of the natives, and give 
space for the debarcation, he ordered the triremes, 
armed with slings, and arrows, and cross-bows, to dis- 
charge a volley on the enemies' front. This produced 
the desired effect ; for, galled by the sudden flight of 
missiles from an unexpected quarter against their half- 
naked bodies, the Britons retreated a few paces, when 
the standard-bearer of the renowned tenth legion seized 
the opportune moment, and shouting to his men, " Sol- 
diers, follow me ! For Caesar and the Kepublic ! " 
threw himself into the sea, and struggled to land. His 
comrades followed by military instinct the example of 
their leader ; and, dashing after the ensign, rushed to 
close quarters. Now came the tug of war. The Eomans 
were not in rank, and their heavy armour impeded their 
movements. The Britons, on the other hand, with 
their small bucklers, short spears, and light swords, 
were here, there, and everywhere 1 , and before the 
Eomans could form, many a knot of them was cut 
in pieces. Victory trembled in the balance, when 
again the great captain displayed his military coolness. 
Wherever along the lines the enemy pressed hardest 
upon the legionaries, Caesar despatched the long-boats 
with succours to their relief. The Eomans recovered 
more and more from their disorder, and soon the tide 

1 " Ta £f o?rXa avrwv aa-rrlg kcli S6pv*ppaxv, fjifjXov xciXkovv kir 

CLKOOV TOV (TTVpCLKOQ «X 0, '> & ff T£ <T£l6fi£VOV KTVTTeIv TTpOQ KCLT ' aifkrfelV TlOV 

EvavriotV eh 2' avroig kcli iy^eipidia." — Xiphilin, cited Mon. Hist. 
Brit. p. lx. " 'Ao-rlla \iovr\v oTtvr\v irtp&E&krifxivoL kcli lopv ' £,i<pog tie 
irapvprriixivoi, yvjivov cwjAaTog' SiopaKog M Tj Kpavovg ovk 'iffaat 
Xprjaiv." — Herodian, cited Mon. Hist. Brit. bay. 






THE LANDING. 47 

began to turn, and the Britons to experience how little 
undisciplined valour can prevail against a compact 
body animated by one soul, and directed by an expe- 
rienced tactician. No sooner were Caesar's troops in 
battle-array than their wonted vigour and confidence 
returned, and the Britons were discomfited and re- 
treated. Caesar, however, had no cavalry with him, 
and this it was, according to his own account, that 
saved the enemy from a total defeat. 1 

Now, for the first time, a Eoman planted his foot on 
British soil. It was a memorable event ; and, if I mis- 
take not, the tradition of it has been preserved in the 
name of the spot where the descent was made. In the 
most ancient records, as Domesday Book, Eomney 
Marsh is written Eomanel 2 , and the natural inference is 
that it was so called from the Eomans. The whole marsh 
is subdivided into Guildford and Walland Marshes, to 
the west; Denge Marsh, to the south; and Eomney 
Marsh proper, to the east. The latter was the portion 
where the Eomans landed, and the town of Eomney, 
called after them, stood at the extremity of it on the 
eastern bank of 'the now scarcely traceable channel of 
the Eother. 

If our hypothesis that Caesar landed at Eomney 
Marsh be well founded, of course the theories which 
assign other localities for the landing are erroneous. 
There are, however, two opinions which have received 
the sanction of very distinguished men, and therefore 
deserve a passing notice. Caesar, says Halley, sailed to 
the east, and disembarked at Deal. Caesar, says Airy, 
sailed to the west, and disembarked at Pevensey. Let 
us first take the case of Deal. 

1 "Hoc unum ad pristinam fortunam Cajsari defuit." — B. G. 
iv. 26. 2 Hasted. 



48 H ALLEY'S THEORY. 

Halley, by calling attention to the turn of the tide as 
an important element in Caesar's narrative, led the way 
to the determination of the true place of Caesar's land- 
ing, though he failed to discover it himself. As his 
argument cannot fail to be interesting, I will read you 
an extract from it. Those who wish to peruse the 
whole paper, will find it in the third vol. of the Philo- 
sophical Transactions, p. 440 : — 

" As to the place," he says, " the high land and cliffs 
described could be no other than those of Dover, and 
are allowed to have been so by all. It remains only to 
consider whether the descent was made to the north- 
ward or southward of the place where he anchored. 
The data. to determine this are: — 1. That it was four 
days before the full moon; 2. That that day, by three 
o'clock in the afternoon, the tide ran the same way 
that he sailed ; 3. That a S. by E. moon makes high 
water on all that coast, the flood coming from the 
southward. Hence it will follow, that that day it 
was high water about eight in the morning, and conse- 
quently low water about two ; therefore, by three 
the tide of flood was well made up,* and it is plain 
that Caesar went with it ; and the flood setting to the 
northward, shows that the open plain shore where he 
landed was to the northward of the cliffs, and must be 
in the Downs; and this I take to he little less than 
demonstration.'" 

Here the astronomer is correct enough in the time of 
high and low water on the day mentioned ; but he falls 
into error in therefore concluding that the current was 
at 3 p.m. in full flow to the north. The theory that 
when the tide rises it runs to the north, and that in 
ebbing it returns to the south, may be true generally ; 
but the mistake made was, that he did not allow for 



BALLET'S THEORY. L§ 

the disturbances created by the obstruction which the 
tide encounters in forcing its way amongst islands 
and through narrow channels. It is one thing to 
calculate forces in the abstract, and another to 
apply them, taking into account the resistance from 
friction. The present Astronomer Eoyal, in order to set 
the matter at rest, applied for information to Captain 
F. W. Beechey, who had recently made a survey of the 
Channel, under the directions of the Admiralty, and the 
answer was substantially in accordance with the tidal 
tables. " At full and change of the moon," he says, 
" the stream makes to the westward off Dover, at one 
and a half mile distance from the shore, about 3 h 10 m , 
and there does not appear to be much difference in this 
part of the Channel between the turn of the stream in 
shore and in the centre. . . . Winds greatly affect 
the time of turn of the stream. The stream runs to the 
west about six and a half hours, after which there is 
slack water for about a quarter of an hour." * Now, if 
at full moon the tide runs west at 3 P. M., it follows that 
on the fourth day before the tide would begm to run 
west about noon, and at 3 P. M. would have acquired 
its maximum velocity in that direction. Thus the very 
argument which Halley made use of triumphantly to 
show that Caesar sailed to Deal, is a demonstrative 
proof that he sailed towards Eomney Marsh. Another 
objection to the debarcation at Deal may be drawn 

1 Archgeolog. vol. xxxiv. To test the accuracy of this account. I 
requested my friend Mr. Barton, of Dover, to observe for me on 
18th January, 1859 (the day of the full moon), at what time the 
tide turned west, and he returned the following answer: — " 18th 
January, 1859. Sir F. W. Beechey is quite correct in his statement, 
as the tide turned, and commenced running west, a few minutes 
before three o'clock this afternoon." 

E 



50 H ALLEY'S THEORY. 

from a circumstance attending Caesar's expedition in 
the following year. Caesar again started from Boulogne 
at night, and steered for the same place where he had 
landed before ; but during the night his fleet was drifted 
by the current, and in the morning he found Britain, 
i. e. the South Foreland, on his left hand. Had he been 
making for Deal, this was just in the line for it ; but 
what did Caesar do 1 He took advantage of the turn of 
the tide back again toward the west, and then followed 
it till, by dint of rowing and the aid of the stream, he 
arrived about noon at his former landing-place. 1 Neither 
do the features of Deal at all correspond to the face of 
the country such as Caesar depicts it. Where are the 
woods and the corn lands, to which repeated reference 
is made in the Commentaries % I will not say that 
there is not a tree or a corn field near Deal, but the 
character of the district is pastoral. From Deal to 
Canterbury is one great grazing plain, undiversified by 
a single coppice. Where, again, are the marshes, which 
are put prominently forward in every writer's account 1 
Caesar speaks of the vada or shoals (B. G. v. 26) ; Dion 
of the Tsvayr} or lagoons (xxxix. 51) ; Plutarch of the 
T07rov s^w^rj xa\ TsAjaartt)^, the marshy and swampy 
ground (Plut Cces. 16); and Valerius Maximus of an 
island formed by the ebb and flow of the tide ( Vol. 
Max. hi. 2). But, as to the part about Deal, I may use 
the very words of Halley himself, that "it is known to 
be a firm champaign country, without fens and mo- 
rasses." 2 Halley, indeed, thinks the difficulty removed 

1 " Longius delatus gestu, orta luce, sub sinistra Britauuiam relic- 
tarn conspexit. Turn rursus cestus conimutationem secutus remis 
contendit, ut earn partem insutae caperet qua optimum esse egressum 
superiore agstate cognoverat." — B. G. v. 8. 

2 Philos. Trans, vol. iii. p. 422. 



II ALLEY'S THEORY. 51 

by translating rsvay^ which most staggers him, by the 
ooze of the sea ; but if he supposed that there was a 
wet and muddy border from the wash of the waves 
along that coast, he was altogether mistaken, as the 
beach is a fine dry shingle. Where, again, is the river 
backed by a commanding height, on which the Britons 
were posted at the distance of twelve miles from 
Caesar's camp'? The Stour at Canterbury is eighteen 
mile's from Deal, and if it approaches nearer on its way 
to Sandwich, it flows through a low, marshy ground, 
where we shall look in vain for any strong military 
fastness, of a forestal character, such as the Britons are 
said to have occupied. 1 

Those to whom faith furnishes a strong imagination, 
are said to have seen the remains of fortifications about 
Deal, which, of course, are ascribed to Caesar. But I 
can only say that, in walking from Deal by Walmer to 
the commencement of the chalk clhTs, I endeavoured 
in vain to find anything of the kind. If there be such 
remains, they belong probably to the Eomans of later 
times, or to the Saxons or Danes. But I cannot help 
thinking that they never had any existence, as Camden 
himself suggests that what are supposed to be military 
works may be merely heaps of sand and accumulations 
of shingle. 2 

The only argument I can hit upon in favour of Deal, 
is one of very apocryphal authority, for it is drawn from 
Dion Cassius, who wrote more than two hundred years 
after the event. He tells us incidentally that Caesar 
being repulsed from the usual landing-place, "sailed 

1 " Locum nacti egregie et natura et opere munition ; 

nam crebris arboribus succisis omnes introitus erant praeclusi." — 
B.G.v.9. 

2 Camd. Brit. 

e 2 



52 HALLEY'S THEORY. 

round a certain headland, and so coasted along to 
another part." 1 This, certainly, if taken literally, looks 
as if he went round the South Foreland, but I am 
satisfied that if he had done so, Caesar would have men- 
tioned so remarkable a promontory. If the descriptive 
words of so late a writer as Dion are to have any weight, 
I should interpret them as meaning only that Caesar 
sailed round the bend of the precipitous shore between 
Folkestone and Sandgate, at which latter place the high 
clhTs turn inland, and where, at that time, the sea flowed 
up to the harbour of Limpne or Limne ; or else that 
Caesar arrived at first off Eastweir Bay, which lies be- 
tween Folkestone and Dover, and then sailed round the 
cliff which shuts in the bay on the west, to the coast off 
Lymne which, by the ordnance map, is just about eight 
miles to the west of Eastweir Bay. 

Next for the hypothesis lately advanced by the Astro- 
nomer Eoyal, that Caesar landed at Pevensey. In the first 
place, the selection of this spot for the debarcation is 
simply a consequence flowing from another assumption 
of the same writer, viz. that Caesar set sail from the 
estuary of the Somme ; and as I have shown the latter 
position to be untenable, the former must fall with it. 
But there are some special objections to Airy's theory of 
Pevensey, which I cannot pass over. Caesar describes 
Portus Itius as thirty miles only from Britain ; whereas 
Pevensey is fifty-two nautical, or sixty English miles, 
from the Somme, i. e. double the distance, and is, I 
presume, at least forty miles from any other point of 
the Continent. How, then, can Pevensey be the coast 
for which Caesar steered 1 Again, consider the bearing 



1 u "AKpav ovv Tira Trpoe-^ovaav 7repnr\ev(raQ Eripioae TrapeKOjiiadn. 
Dion, xxxix. 51. 



airy's theory. 53 

of this distance with reference to Caesar's return from his 
second expedition. We shall see that Caesar, on the latter 
occasion, was about eight hours only in crossing, viz. from 
nine in the evening to five in the morning, and if he 
made for the Somme, sixty miles distant, his fleet (over- 
crowded as it certainly was) must, nevertheless, have 
progressed at the rate of seven and a half miles an 
hour, which, as there was no wind, but they trusted to 
their oars only, may surely be pronounced impossible. 1 
I would also venture to ask the question, How it hap- 
pened, if Caesar landed at Pevensey, that the Britons 
were seen upon the heights in expectation of his arrival] 
Can it be supposed that Caesar, one of the greatest 
generals of any age, had made the plan of his debarca- 
tion so public that common rumour had transmitted it 
across the water % On the contrary, Caesar did not 
even inform his own officers what were his designs 
until the very last moment. The only conceivable ex- 
planation is, that the Britons had assembled their forces 
at the havens universally frequented by continental 
voyagers, and it remains to be shown that Hastings was 
such a port, more particularly as Caesar tells us that 
Kent, and not Sussex, was the coast for which vessels 
from Gaul were ordinarily bound. 2 Is it not also 
strange and unaccountable that Caesar should have 
landed in the heart of the dense forest of Anderida ! 
No doubt, the Astronomer Eoyal contends that the forest 
ended at Eobertsbridge toward the east. But what 
proof of this is offered \ Will not every one who ex- 
amines the geological map of England be convinced 

1 " Summam tranquillitatem consecutus." — B. G. v. 23. All 
the vessels were roAv-boats or actuarial. (B. G. v. 1.) 

2 u Cantium, quo fere ex Gallia naves appelluntur." — B. G. 
v.13. 

e 3 



54 AIRV'S THEORY. 

that it extended as far as the wealden, i. e. the wooded 
formation; and, therefore, as far as Hythe? Why 
else have we so many Hursts (the Saxon for woods) to 
the east of Bobertsbridge \ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 
is decisive that even in A. D. 891, the wood Anderida 
extended, at all events, as far as fonr miles from the 
month of the Bother ; for, " On this river (the Limene) 
they towed up their ships as far as the wood, four miles 
from the mouth, and erected a fortress at Appledore." 1 
That the debarcation must have been not at Pevensey 
but in Kent, is also evinced by a circumstance which 
the Astronomer Eoyal, I think, has not adverted to, 
viz. that Cassivelaun, when he had drawn Caesar beyond 
the Thames, sent orders to the princes of Kent to 
make an attack on Caesar's naval camp. 2 Does not 
this show incontestibly that the camp was in Kent and 
not in Sussex 1 Or will it be said that Kent at that 
time comprised Sussex] I have never seen it sur- 
mised that the ancient borders of Kent were different 
from the present. Sussex was from time immemorial 
known as the kingdom of the Eegni. 

Again, when Caesar sailed to Britain on the second 
expedition, he was so drifted out of his right course by 
the current, that in the morning he found the coast of 
Britain on his left hand. This evidently means that the 
tide had carried him through the Straits of Dover beyond 

1 Anglos. Chron. a. d. 891. Here by the Limene is clearly meant 
the Eother, but usually by the Limene was meant the creek of 
Limne, as in Anon. Haven, who, amongst the rivers of Britain, enu- 
merates successively, Durbis (Dover), Lemana (Lynme), Eovia 
(Bother). 

2 " Cassivelaunus ad Cantium . . . nuntios mittit, atque his iru- 
perat, ut coactis omnibus copiis castra navalia de improviso adori- 
antur atque oppugnent." — B. G. v. 22. 



AIRY'S THEORY. 55 

or up to the South Foreland, and then, with the ship's 
head as at starting, he would have the chalk cliffs be- 
tween Folkestone and the South Foreland on his left. 
But I ask, how could this have occurred had the 
voyage been from the Somme to Pevensey] In that 
case, the distances were such that the tide, which ne- 
ver drifts a vessel more than eighteen miles as the 
maximum 1 , could not possibly have caused such a 
deviation from the right line between the Somme and 
Pevensey. 

We return to Cassar, whom we left on the seashore 
at Eomney Marsh. It was now growing dark, the 
struggle was over, and the first thing to be done was to 
entrench a camp. This was customary with the Eomans 
on ordinary occasions, but here it was more especially 
needed, for it could not be disguised that the position 
of the victor was a somewhat delicate one. Cgesar, 
with 8,000 men, was in a strange land, with a hardy 
and warlike race before him. To attempt the subju- 
gation of the island with so small a band, or even to 
force his way across the Thames in the direction of the 
Trinobantes (Essex), where Imanuent and Mandubert 
were expecting his approach, was palpably hopeless, 
for his two legions would soon be destroyed in piece- 
meal. His policy, therefore, was to make the most of 
his dearly bought victory, and, on the first plausible 
occasion, to effect a return to the Continent, and, if 
Britain were worth the time and outlay, then to repeat 
the experiment the following year with an army equal 
to the enterprise. In the meantime, the communication 
with the sea must be kept open, and, consequently, no 
advance could be made into the interior. 

1 See post. 

E 4 



56 CESAR'S CAMP. 

The precise point where the earliest Eonian camp 
was pitched must be matter of conjecture. Some may, 
perhaps, be inclined to place it on ShornclhTe, where 
is the ancient camp already alluded to, wliich is deci- 
dedly Eoman ; but, on second consideration, the site is 
inadmissible. Caesar's camp was evidently a temporary 
one, for its dimensions were narrower than usual, from 
the legions having crossed the Channel without their 
baggage 1 , and, besides, the triremes were drawn up 
on shore in juxtaposition to the camp, which could 
scarcely have been at ShornclhTe, as the seabeach 
below is at some distance from the cast rum, and is 
also dotted with rocks, the last spurs to the west of 
this iron-bound coast. Others may be disposed to 
locate the camp at Stuttfall, the Eoman quadrangular 
fortress standing half-way up the hill of Lhnne, and 
overlooking the old port ; but, had the triremes been 
drawn on shore at Stuttfall, they could scarcely have 
been swamped by the tide, a mishap which afterwards 
overtook them. The building of Stuttfall itself was 
certainly not erected on this occasion, as it is of much 
too massive a character. We should say, upon the 
whole, that the camp of Caesar was probably on the 
seaside opposite Linme, and perhaps where the fort 
now stands. This agrees best with the various features 
of the description. It would then be a protection to 
the triremes drawn up under the ramparts, and, again, 
it would afford credibihty to the anecdote of Valerius 
Maxim us, that the camp was not far from an island, 
and would correspond, also, in two circumstances, appa- 



1 " Quum paucitatern militum ex castrorura exiguitate cogno- 
scerent, qua? hoc erant etiam angustiora, quod sine imperii mentis 
Caesar legiones transportaYerat." — B. G. iv. 30. 



CVESAR'S CAMP. 57 

rently not easily combined, viz. that on the one hand 
there were marshes round about, and on the other there 
were corn fields and woods in the immediate vicinity. 
The latter fact, which so exactly tallies with a site off 
Limne, would exclude the notion of placing the camp 
more to the west, in the neighbourhood of Eomney, 
for, in that quarter, though the fens abound, there are 
few corn fields and no woods. 

The Britons, on their side, had felt the weight of 
Caesar's legions, and, after a defeat with every advan- 
tage in their favour, could not hope to succeed in a 
conflict upon equal terms. Besides, the troops of Kent 
and Eegnum or Sussex only were now opposed to the 
invader. The most powerful of the British princes, Cas- 
sivelaun, king of the Catyeuchlani (Hertfordshire and 
Middlesex), was fully employed elsewhere, for he was 
engaged in an internecine war with Imanuent, king of 
the Trinobantes. 1 The forces, also, which had been 
collected on the coast were hastily drawn together, and 
many of them were beardless youths ; at least, the 
author of the Dialog, de Oratoribus, who wrote a.d. 75, 
introduces Aper as saying that he had conversed in Britain 
with one who had taken part in the battle at Cassar's 
landing 2 ; and, as the anecdote is related 130 years after 
the event, the Briton in question must have been a 

1 Caesar, in the second expedition, observes that : " Huic (Cassi- 
velauno) superiori tempore [viz. on the first expedition] cum reli- 
quis civitatibus continentia bella intercesserant." — B. G. v. 11, 
compare v. 20. 

2 " Ipse ego in Britannia vidi senem qui se fatebatur ei pugnae 
interfuisse, qua Caesarem inferentem arma Britannis arcere litoribus 
et pellere aggressi sunt. Ita si eum qui armatus Caesari restitit, vel 
captivitas vel voluntas vel fatum aliquod in urbem protraxisset, idem 
Caesarem ipsum et Ciceronem audire potuit, et nostris quoque 
actionibus interesse." — Dial, de Orat. c. 17. 



58 THE STORM. 

mere stripling in B.C. 55. According to Caesar, no 
sooner had the Eomans made good their debarcation 
than the Britons sued for peace, and delivered up Comius 
of Arras, whom Caesar, before his passage across the 
Channel, had sent into Britain, and who, as soon as he 
landed, had been seized and put in bonds as a spy. 
We have no other account, and must, therefore, acquiesce 
in this statement, inconsistent as it appears with the re- 
solute and determined character of the Britons on other 
occasions. Caesar 1 , who was ready to accept any terms, 
made a feint of commanding hostages, and hostages were 
given by some states, by those perhaps which were 
friendly to the Eomans, and were promised by others, 
but never delivered. Thus a peace, or rather a hollow 
truce, was concluded, and for a few days there was a 
calm ; the Eomans quietly occupying their camp, and 
the natives pursuing, at least ostensibly, their usual 
agricultural occupations. 

The fourth day of Caesar's arrival (the day of arrival 
included), i. e. on the 30 th of August, great events oc- 
curred. We have seen that eighteen ships, assembled 
at Ambleteuse, had been unable to make the port of 
Boulogne, and, in consequence, the cavalry had been 
ordered from Boulogne to Ambleteuse, to embark there 
with all expedition. Caesar complains of a little want 
of alacrity on the part of the cavalry 2 , and the delay 
was so fatal that any peevishness on the part of the 
commander may be excused. The day after the trans- 

1 Dion seems to insinuate that negotiations only were pending, 
and that no treaty had been concluded when the Britons renewed 
the contest: " tote jjev bfjtipovg uiTriaavTi avTw hovvai i)d£\i] aav." 
— Dion, xxxix. 51. 

2 " Ab quibus cum paullo tardius esset administratum." — B G. 
iv. 23. 



THE STORM. 59 

port of the infantry, the wind had shifted from the 
south-west to the north-east, and the vessels at Amble- 
teuse could not quit the harbour. At length, on the 
30 th August, the wind moderated, and a gentle breeze 
sprang up from the south, when the cavalry hurried on 
board, and set sail for Britain. The elements had de- 
luded them, for, when in mid-channel, and already in 
sight from Caesar's camp, the wind suddenly veered 
round to the old quarter of the north-east, and blew 
such a hurricane that the vessels were beaten out of 
their course. Some were driven back to the Continent, 
and others borne away to the western parts of the island, 
where they cast anchor, and endeavoured to ride out 
the storm ; but the violence of the waves was such that, 
being afraid of running into any British harbour, for 
fear of assassination, they were obliged to put to sea 
again and steer for the Continent, so that, eventually, 
not a single trooper ever reached the Eoman camp. 1 
The eighty vessels by which Caesar had transported his 
legions, and which had been anchored off the shore in 
the Bay of Dungeness, were also victims to the tempest. 
I have heard an old weather-beaten sailor remark that 
there is no finer bay than this along the southern coast, 
and that ships may ride there in safety at all times, pro- 
vided the wind do not come from the east. Unluckily, 
this was partly the quarter from which the wind now 
blew, and the consequence was that the transports 
became unmanageable ; many of them foundered, and 
the rest lost their sails and anchors, and were rendered 
unfit for service. Even the triremes, which had been 
drawn up on the beach, did not escape, for at night 
was the full moon, when was the spring tide. In gene- 

1 B. G. iv. 28. 



60 BRITISH STRATEGY. 

ral, no doubt, the highest tide is a day and a half after 
the full ; but, to use the language of the old sailor with 
whom I conversed, " It is the wind as rules the tides." 
In Dungeness Bay, for instance, when the wind is in the 
north, the tide rises to an unusual height ; and, when 
the wind is hi the south, it falls proportionally low. 
The hurricane which now swept the ocean was from 
the north-east ; and the combined effect of the spring 
tide and of the wind was to pour a deluge over a great 
part of Eomney Marsh ; and, as the Eomans, in igno- 
rance of these natural phenomena, had drawn up then: 
galleys on the very margin of the sea, the foaming bil- 
lows burst over them, and caused incredible damage. 1 
It is a singular confirmation of our hypothesis of the 
debarcation at Eomney Marsh that the range of high 
water at the springs is greater here than at any other 
point of the southern coast. At Dungeness, for example, 
the mean range is twenty-one feet three quarters, while 
at Deal it is only sixteen feet, so that Csesar's vessels at 
Eomney Marsh were exposed to a rise of nearly six feet 
more than they would have been at Deal. 2 

Csesar now brings a charge of perfidy against the 
Britons, viz. that seeing the small amount of his infan- 
try, without any cavalry or supplies of corn or service- 
able transports, they, in spite of the treaty which had 
been solemnly concluded, entered into a conspiracy for 
the extermination of the Eomans by an assault upon 
their camp. But we must remember that the Com- 
mentaries are an ex parte statement, and written with a 
strong bias towards the glorification of the writer and 

1 " Eadem nocte accidit lit esset luna plena, qui dies maritimos 
oestus maximos in oceano efficere consuevit, nostrisque id erat incog- 
nitum." — B. G. iv. 29. " Kara T)jv Travai\r]vovy — Strabo, iv. 5. 

2 Potter's Tide Tables for 1859, p. 147. 



BRITISH STRATEGY. Gl 

the disparagement of the Britons. But I think it wiD 
appear, even on Caesar's own showing, that the Britons 
were as much the aggrieved as the aggressive party. 
We read that Ca3sar, before he knew the designs of the 
Britons — before, I say, he knew the designs of the 
Britons 1 , — drew a conjectural conclusion from the cir- 
cumstances in which he was placed that they would 
play him false, and proceeded to make preparation 
against it by cutting all the standing corn within his 
reach and carrying it into his camp. JSTow, was it not 
a casus belli that a general with .whom they had just 
struck a treaty of peace should march his troops into 
their fields and annihilate the labours of the year by 
taking forcible possession of the crops 1 Appian, indeed, 
expressly states that the Eomans had agreed by the 
treaty to withdraw from the island, and that the 
Britons advanced a charge of perfidy against the 
Eomans for still remaining upon their shores. 2 

The events which occurred were these. Caesar 
day after day continued cutting and carrying the corn 
from the vicinity 3 ; the Britons at last could endure 
this no longer, and concerted the following stratagem. 
The only corn left was contiguous to a wood, and 
concluding that the Eomans would next extend their 
depredation in this direction, they concealed there a 
strong body of horse and foot and charioteers, ready to 
sally forth at a given signal. The ambush succeeded. 
About a week after the storm, i.e. about the 7th 



1 " Etsi nondum eorum consilia cognoverat." — B. G. iv. 31. 

2 " Evdvq r/pidi£ov (ol 'Pojjjaioi) tovq Bperravovg TrapopKrjaaiy 
EyicXrifxa e\ovrag on cnrovSiov crtyiat yevofxivioy en Traprjv to aTparo- 
tt£<W." — Appian, cited Monum. Historica Britannica, 50. 

3 " Frumentum ex agris in castra quotidie comparabat." — B. G. 
iv. 31. 



62 THE SEVENTH LEGION. 

of September, one of the two legions, viz. the seventh, 
was sent to forage as usual, and they turned their 
steps towards the field where the snare had been laid. 
No sooner had they piled their arms, and were engaged 
with their sickles, than the Britons rushed upon them 
unawares, slew some 1 , and with their horse and chariots 
hemmed in the rest. 2 A desperate struggle now ensued, 
as the legion was surrounded and no quarter was asked 
on either side. By good luck the cohorts, which were on 
duty before the camp, and were looking idly in the 
direction which the legion had taken, saw a whirlwind 
of dust flying in the air, and immediately gave the 
alarm. 3 Caesar hastened off, himself, with the cohorts 
already under arms, and commanded the rest to follow 
with all expedition. He arrived just in time to save the 
legion. The enemy, taken in flank, at once gave ground, 
and the legionaries at sight of the succours took heart, 
and redoubled their efforts. It was a narrow escape, 
however ; and Caesar, by his own confession, could only 
bring off his men without daring to run the risk of a 
general engagement. 

Consider here, for a moment, how apparently irre- 
concilable and incapable of answering to any locality 
are the features attending this skirmish. The camp 
itself was in the marsh, as is evident from its cover- 
ing the triremes drawn up on shore, and from the 
repeated references by Caesar and all writers to the 

1 " Paucis interfectis." — Cces. B. G. iv. 32. Dion says that the 
Britons slew nearly the whole : " rovg re TrXijy oXiyiov dUcpdaipav." — 
Dion, xxxix. 52. 

2 " Simul equitatu atque essedis circumdederant." — B. G. 
iv. 32. 

3 " Ii, qui pro portis castrorum in statione erant, Caesari renun- 
tiaverunt pulverem majorem quam consuetudo ferret in ea parte 
videri, quam in partem legio iter fecisset." — B. G. iv. 32. 






LIMNE. 63 

shoals and shallows. On the other hand, a corn field 
adjoining a wood could not have existed on the 
marsh, where the corn fields are few and woods are none. 
Yet the scene of the combat was not far from the 
camp or the dust would not have been observed, and 
Caesar could not have brought such ready assistance. 
At the same time also that the two points were little 
removed from each other, the dust only was seen, and 
not the combatants themselves. I confess that, as I 
passed in a boat along the coast opposite Limne, and 
saw no woods and no corn fields in the marsh, and a hill 
shutting in the plain on the north, my reflection was, 
How could Caesar's camp have been here, for the ambush 
against the seventh legion could not have been laid in the 
marsh, and if on the other side of the hill, how could 
the dust of the fight have been visible % But on another 
day, when I visited Hythe by land, and walked from it 
to the old port of Limne and then mounted the hill, I 
discovered the explanation. On reaching the top I 
stepped at once into a corn field, dry and dusty from 
the lightness of the soil, and on my right was Park 
Wood, covering some fifty acres, besides another wood, 
called Fowke Wood, in the immediate neighbourhood. 
What I had taken from the sea for a hill was not a 
hill, i. e. it had no descent on the north side, but was a 
platform of land, and was under the plough, and corn 
growing so near to the edge that even the reapers, if 
labouring in that part of the field, might have been 
seen from the camp. The whole narrative was now 
realised to the mind's eye in the most graphic manner. 
The legion had marched up to the standing fields of 
corn on the high ground, and the Britons starting from 
their lurking-place at the side had intercepted their 
retreat, and surrounded them at just such an interval 



64 EXPLOIT OF SCiEVA. 

from the edge that the combatants themselves were out 
of sight and hearing, but the dust flying in the air 
had attracted the attention of the guard standing under 
arms at a mile's distance below. 

But to proceed. Caesar, not feeling himself strong 
enough to avenge the blow which had been struck at the 
seventh legion, withdrew his forces behind the entrench- 
ments of his camp, and this confession of weakness on 
his part gave proportional confidence to his antagonist. 
For many days consecutively the weather was so un- 
propitious that neither party ventured on any hostile 
movement. About the 15th September, however, the 
Britons, having by that time assembled a numerous 
body of infantry and cavalry, determined on assaulting 
the very camp of the Eomans. Caesar deemed it the 
wisest course to anticipate the conflict which he could 
not avoid ; and, therefore, trusting to the valour and 
discipline of his legions in a general engagement, drew 
out his army in front of the camp, and awaited the 
approach of the enemy. 

Now, perhaps, occurred the incident related by Va- 
lerius Maximus. One Scaeva, and four others, had 
been posted by Caesar as piquets on a solitary ait 1 , 
which rose above the waves, and was separated from a 
larger island, occupied by the enemy, by a narrow 
strait formed by the tide at high water. The islands 
represented in the old maps as studding the inlet which 
ran up to Linme, may possibly have been the identical 
islands here referred to by the historian ; but, of course, 
all is conjecture, when the configuration of this part of 
the coast has undergone such material changes. The 

1 Valerius Maximus calls it a scojndus, which probably means 
nothing more than an eminence. Plutarch is very emphatic in 
saying that the adventure was in a marsh. (Plut. Cas. c. 16.) 



EXPLOIT OF SCLEVA. 65 

Britons being familiar with the coast, knew exactly 
when, by the subsidence of the flood, the intervening 
channel could become fordable, and as soon as it was 
so, they dashed into the sea and made toward the Bo- 
man guard. Four out of the five sprang into their 
boat and rowed to the camp ; but Scceva, whether pur- 
posely or by accident, was left behind, when he hurled 
among the enemy his own javelins and those flung 
away by his comrades, and then, drawing his sword, 
fought hand to hand, and finally cast himself into the 
water and swam across to the camp. 1 Plutarch tells 
the same story, and lays the scene in sight of Caesar 
himself, and therefore close to the camp 2 ; and in a 
marsh or swamp, which, with the light afforded by the 
account of Valerius Maximus, must be taken to mean 
a lagoon subject to the alternations of the high and 
low tide. 3 

On the mainland the hostile forces met, and 
again the compact onset of the veteran legions pre- 
vailed. Cassar had no cavalry, except thirty horse- 
men which Comius of Arras had just brought over 
from the Continent, and few therefore of the Britons 
could be slain or captured. The only revenge in the 
power of the Eomans was to set fire to the buildings 
which came in their way, and many a merchant's 
house at Limne, and in the vicinity, was burnt to the 
ground. 4 

1 Valer. Max. iii. 2, 23. The vada described by Val. Max. as 
caused by the flux and reflux of the tide are evidently the vada 
referred to by Caesar (iv. 26). 

2 " Kataapog avrov ti)i> ixayrjv l<popiovTOQ.' n — Pint. Cces. S. 16. 

3 " T07rov iXiodr] rcu fieffTov vdarog . . pevfxaTa reKfiaTLoDr] . . 
Tu pep vrj^ofxevog rd 3e /3a<)t£W." — Plut. Cces. 16. 

4 B. G. iv. 35. The camp, therefore, was not in the heart of the 
marsh, where frequent houses would not be found. 

F 



66 PEACE CONCLUDED. 

The position of the two parties at the present moment 
was this : — The Britons had once more felt the irresist- 
ible weight of a disciplined army confident in its ge- 
neral, and, after a defeat in the open field, they could 
not hope to carry the camp by assault. Caesar, on the 
other hand, was in a hostile country, with a force 
wholly inadequate to any advance into the interior, and 
the season was so late, and his ships so shattered, that 
unless he returned shortly he might even experience 
some difficulty in effecting a retreat. Thus both sides 
were predisposed to peace, and, according to Caesar, the 
Britons, on the very day of the last conflict, tendered their 
submission. 1 From Dion, however, we learn that negoti- 
ations were opened by the intervention of some Morini 
who were friends of the Britons. 2 Caesar would have 
us believe that he carried it with a high hand, and that 
he required the delivery of twice the number of hos- 
tages which he had previously exacted ; but it is easy 
to see, notwithstanding the veil attempted to be thrown 
over the transaction, that he wanted only a plausible 
pretext for transporting himself and his army back 
again to Gaul. He admits himself that the hostages 
were merely promised and not delivered at the time, 
and that two states only ever kept their engagement. 3 
There was no cession of territory, no imposition of 
tribute, and there is no mention of even any booty. 
The conclusion of a peace upon terms like these does 
not suggest a triumphant campaign, but rather wears 

1 " Eodem die legati ab hostibus missi ad Csesarem de pace vene- 
runt." — B. G. iv. 36. 

2 " irefXTrovoi yap irpbg rbv Kai&apa rwV MwptVwv Tivdg, <J>i\ioy 
acpiffiv oitwj'." — Dion, xxxix. 51. 

3 " Eo duae omnino civitates ex Britannia obsides miserunt ; 
reliquae neglexerunt." — B. G. iv. 38. 



CAESAR'S RETURN. G7 

the aspect of a fortunate escape from anticipated disas- 
ter. 

A few days after this was a favorable wind from 
the north-east 1 , when Cagsar set sail from Britain, a 
little after midnight, on his return to Gaul. 2 He might 
have chosen this otherwise unpropitious hour for two 
reasons. In the first place, he would be less likely to 
meet with any molestation from an active foe, in whose 
good faith he placed no great confidence ; and, secondly, 
as Boulogne was a tidal harbour, it would be necessary 
to arrive there at or a little before high water. If the 
state of the tide was thus taken into calculation, we 
may form some conjecture as to the day of depar- 
ture. The passage from Boulogne to Britain had 
occupied the ordinary transports about fifteen hours ; 
and as Caesar had lost twelve ships, which would render 
the others more crowded, the same time, if not more, 
would be required for the return. Weighing anchor, 
therefore, at twelve at night, he would reach Boulogne 
at 3 P. M. next day. If it was high tide at 4 p. m. the 
fleet at 3 p. m. would not only be able to enter the 
port, but also have the stream in their favour. Now, 
high water at Boulogne at 4 p. M. would be about 
19th September, for new moon was on 14th Septem- 
ber, when high tide at Boulogne is at 11.25 ; and this 
agrees very well with the statement of the Commen- 
taries, that the conclusion of the armistice, which led to 
his departure, was a little before the equinox, computed 
at that time to fall on 24th September. 3 

The fleet crossed the Channel in safety, but two 
transports, missing the mouth of the port for which 

Ipse idoneam tempestatem nactus." — B. G. iv. 36. 



ipse luuueam lempesiciieiii nauius. — x>. vr. iv. ov. 
" Paullo post mediam noctem naves solvit." — B. G. iv. 
" Propinqua die eequinoctii." — B. G. iv. 36. 



f 2 



G8 THE RETUHX. 

they were bound 1 , were carried to a point a little to the 
south-west. 2 The soldiers (in number 600) disembarked, 
and commenced their march to the camp, when they 
were beset by the Morini for the sake of plunder. 
They sent off immediately for succour, and meanwhile 
bravely defended themselves for the space of four hours 
and upwards, when they were rescued by the cavalry 
dispatched from the camp to their assistance. 3 The 
next day Caesar ordered the seventh and tenth legions, 
under the command of Labienus, to inflict punishment 
on the aggressors; and as the marshes, their usual 
asylum, were dried up from the excessive heat, ample 
vengeance was taken. 4 These incidents are unimpor- 
tant in "themselves, but not so the inferences to be 
deduced. 

In the first place, how was it that the two vessels 
missed the port of Boulogne at all? The explana- 
tion is a singular instance of the correspondence of 
the most minute circumstances when a theory is cor- 
rect. The fleet were, of course, ajiproaching Bou- 
logne when the tide was rising, for at low water they 



1 " Eosdem portus quos reliquae capere non potuerunt." — B. G. 
iv. 36. It will be observed that here, as elsewhere (v. 8), portus is 
in the plural, from which it may be inferred that Caesar made use, 
not only of Boulogne, but also of Ambleteuse and Wimereux, in the 
same neighbourhood. Caesar himself, however, must have sailed 
to Boulogne ; for which port also the two vessels in question, as 
Caesar himself sent relief to their crews, must have been bound. 

2 " Paullo infra delatae sunt." — B. G. iv. 36. There cannot be 
a doubt that infra means south-west. Thus : " ad inferior em partem 
insulae quae est proprius solis occasumP — B. G. iv. 28. So Amble- 
teuse, with reference to Boulogne, is called " portus superior T (lb.) 

3 " Interim nostri milites impetum hostium sustinuerunt, atque 
amplius horis quatuor fortissime pugnaverunt." — B. G. iv. 37. 

4 " Propter siccitates pallidum." — B. G. iv. 38. 



THE RETURN. 69 

could not enter it. Now what says the Admiralty- 
Directory \ " On approaching Boulogne at the begin- 
ning of a rising tide, great attention should be paid to 
the direction in the tables, as the streams (from the 
Channel to the North Sea) hereabout meet, and are 
turned down upon the French coast, so that a ship, 
which, at the English side, would at this time have a 
stream setting straight up the Channel, here encounters 
one upon her beam, sweeping her down towards the 
Somme, and hence, probably, the cause of the many 
disastrous losses which have occurred in this part of 
the Channel." 1 Here then, at once, is the solution of 
the difficulty which would otherwise have presented 
itself, viz. that, if it was high water at 4 p.m., the 
stream at 2.30 p.m. would begin to run east, so 
that a vessel at that time would be drifted, not 
lower down towards the Somme, but higher up to- 
wards Calais. But we here learn upon authority, 
that, at the very same time that on the English side 
the current is running east, it sets in just the oppo- 
site direction in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. The 
captains of the two ships in question were evidently not 
aware of this peculiarity, and hence their inability to 
reach the general rendezvous. 

Again, as the legionaries fought their way through 
the Morini, it follows, as observed in a former page, 
that the Morini were settled to the south-west of the 
port of Itius, and, consequently, that Portus Itius could 
not be the estuary of the Somme, as the Morini did 
not reach so far probably as the Somme, but certainly 
did not extend to the west beyond it. 

Further, it is not expressly said, but may fairly 



1 Potter's Tide Tables, p. 132. 
f 3 



70 THE RETUKK 

be inferred from the narrative, that there was also a 
port into which the two vessels ran to the south-west 
of Portus Itius; and, as the legionaries, while on 
their road to the camp, fought for more than four 
hours before assistance arrived, this port must have 
been at some considerable distance. Accordingly, at 
thirteen miles to the south-west of Boulogne, we find 
the port of Etaples at the mouth of La Canche, a situ- 
ation which answers to the circumstances. But should 
it be thought more probable that the two ships made 
land at some nearer point, there are also the fishing 
refuges of Hardelot and Canriers. 1 

Again, reference is made in the narrative to exten- 
sive marshes, in which the Morini the year before had 
eluded pursuit, but which were now accessible from 
the excessive drought. I have not visited this part, 
and cannot speak of the nature of the country from 
personal observation; but I find it stated, on cre- 
dible authority, that these marshes formerly extended 
the whole way from JSTeufchatel near Boulogne to 
Etaples. 2 

In concluding the account of the first invasion, I shall 
add but one or two general remarks, and these so ob- 
vious that they must already have occurred to your- 

1 " Un pen plus bas de Boulogne se trouvent Hardelot, Camiers, 
Etaples ; il j a du choix, surtout si ce port un peu plus bas etait 
tout simplement la place sur laquelle les vaisseaux furent portes et 
echouerent." — Mariette, p. 65. 

2 " Des marais, situes paulo infra comnie le port de debarque- 
ment, s'etendaient autrefois depuis Neufcliatel jusqu'a Etaples et 
Montreuil. Ces marais etaient situes a quatre ou cinq lieues de 
Gesoriacum, et les soldats debarques pouvaient combattre quatre 
heures avant qu'un des leurs se fut detache pour aller porter la 
nouvelle a Cesar, et que la cavalerie ait eu le temps d'arriver." — 
Mariette.) p. 66. 



CAESAR'S SUCCESS. 71 

selves. It is impossible to suppose that, when Caesar 
sailed from Boulogne with 8,000 legionaries, he had the 
intention of merely landing in Britain and cooping up 
his troops within the intrenchments of his camp on the 
seashore. He had, no doubt, imagined that, with a 
well-trained army of that amount, he could subdue 
Britain with ease, and, in fact, had only to take posses- 
sion of it. Instead of that, he found the usual ports 
occupied by infantry and cavalry in martial array, and 
was obliged to seek a place of debarcation eight miles 
off, and was then so resolutely opposed as to effect a 
landing at a great sacrifice of life. Not only did he 
want the courage to march into the interior, but the 
Britons, taking the initiative, nearly cut off the seventh 
legion on one occasion, and compelled Caesar on another 
to give battle with all his forces, without the chance of 
gaining anything more by his victory than a peaceful 
retreat across the Channel. Caesar, of course, tells his 
own story in his own favour; and we have not the 
British account to put in the opposite scale. But even 
Caesar's excuses and apologies lead to a disclosure of 
the truth. " He had passed into Britain," he says, " for 
the purpose of collecting information as to the people, 
the country, the ports, and the approaches." x But how 
was even this object accomplished ; for, as he never 
quitted his camp except for a mile or so, for the rescue 
of his army or to check the insolence of the enemy, he 
could scarcely have obtained more intelligence on the 
one side of the water than on the other \ It must be 
admitted that he gained some experience as to the 
mettle of the inhabitants ; and found, to his cost, that 

1 " Tamen magno sibi usui fore arbitrabatur, si modo insulam 
adisset; genus hominum perspexisset ; loca, portus, aditus cogno- 
visset." — &. G. iv. 20. 



72 (LESAR'S SUCCESS. 

they were not lightly to be provoked. Unquestionably, 
he would not have been so much at the enemy's mercy 
had his cavalry not disappointed hirn ; but a squadron 
of 800 horse could not have turned the scale so much 
in his favour as to give him possession of the country. 
Caesar informs us that thirty days' thanksgiving was 
decreed at Eome for his exploits in Britain ; but this 
was from the representation contained in his own de- 
spatches 1 , and we are expressly told by Dion that Caesar 
made the most of it. 2 Besides, Britain was so little 
known at Eome, that to have carried the Eoman army 
thither beyond the civilised world was, in itself, re- 
garded as no contemptible feat, not to mention that, 
from the state of parties at Eome, any honour in favour 
of Caesar immediately became a political question. 
The other Eoman historians are candid enough as to 
the failure of Caesar's first expedition. Livy writes that 
Caesar, in his first campaign, was unfortunate 3 ; Dion 
remarks that he got nothing by the campaign but the 
barren honour of having landed in the island 4 ; and it 
is certain that Caesar acquired none of the usual fruits 
of victory, — no territory, no tribute, no booty. One 
fact speaks very loudly, viz. that when he returned to 
Gaul he left no garrison, not even a single soldier, 
behind him. He had been so roughly handled, that, as 
we should surmise, he had even no intention at this 
time of renewing the attempt. It was only from the 

1 B. G. iv. 38. 

2 " Tovra) yap Kai avrog la^vputg eaEfivvvsTO." — Dion, xxxix. 53. 

3 " Jn Britanniam priino parum prospere tempestatibus adversis 
trajecit." — Liv. Epit. lib. 105. 

4 " Mrjdep ek rrjg TSpeTTaviag fiifre Eavrio fifjTE rfj ttoXei irpoaKrii- 
oajJievoQ, 7t\t)v tov karpaTEVKEvai W avrovg Sofai" — Dion, xxxix. bo. 
" diaK£vi]Q tots avE-xwpnaE." — Dion, xl. 1. 



CESAR'S SUCCESS. 73 

taunts by which he was assailed in Gaul that he was 
afterwards induced to undertake a second invasion, 
with thrice the number of forces. It is clear that, for 
the rest of the year, though three months remained, he 
gave no orders for any preparations for the renewal of 
hostilities. 



74 



SECOKD INVASION. 

In the following year, B. c. 54, being the consulship of 
L. Domitius and Ap. Claudius, Csesar resolved on a 
second invasion of Britain. The excuse was that the 
Britons, with the exception of two states, had not sent 
the hostages which had been promised the year before. 1 
The real motive was to retrieve the discredit of the pre- 
vious failure, and to give incessant employment to his 
army. He was also stimulated to the enterprise by the 
earnest solicitations of an exiled British prince. During 
the first expedition a fierce war had been raging 
between Cassivelaun, king of the Catyeuchlani 2 and 



B. G. iv. 38. Dion, xl. 1. 
2 It is generally believed that the capital of Cassivelaun was 
Verulamium, and, if so, his subjects were the Catyeuchlani : " dra 
KaTvevxXavoi, oi ical KcnreXavoi [qu. KamXavoi^ iv TtoXeig 2aA.7j/at 
[qu. Sulloniacse of Anton. Itin.] OvpoXaviov" — Ptol. ii. 3, 21. Indeed 
Cassivelaun and Catyeuchlan are the same name, and he was so called 
as being the chief of the clan, as we say the Macgregor, the Chis- 
holm, &c. This will account for there being no coins of Cassivelaun, 
though there are so many of Cunobelin. Most of the Belgian tribes 
in Britain were called after those in Gaul (B. G. v. 12), and the 
KarvevxXavoi as Ptolemy calls them(ii. 3, 21), or the KaroveXXavoL 
as Dion calls them (lx. 20), were probably derived from the Cata- 
launi, or Catelauni (Eutrop. ix. 13., and the Notitia), now known as 
the people of Chalons-sur-Marne, a corruption of the original name. 
The true designation of the clan appears to be that given by Dion, 
for an ancient inscription has been found in Britain CIVITATE 
CATWELLANORUM T OIS DIO. (Monum. Hist. Brit, cxix.) 
They occupied Hertfordshire and Middlesex, for Caesar says ex- 
pressly that " Cassivelauni fines" were bounded on the south by the 
Thames (B. G. v. 11) ; and it is more natural to suppose that Caesar 
means the borders of the Catyeuchlani Proper, than of the Trino- 






PREPARATIONS. 75 

Imanuent, king of the Trinobantes 1 ; and Csesar, kept 
at bay on the seashore by the men of Kent and Sus- 
sex, had attempted in vain to carry assistance to Ima- 
nuent, his ally. The consequence was that the latter, 
unable by his own strength to withstand the furi- 
ous onset of his powerful antagonist, had been de- 
feated and slain; and his son Mandubert, seeking 
safety in flight, had taken refuge with Csesar, and 

bantes whom Cassivelaun had conquered. In the reign of Claudius, 
Caractacus and Togodumnus are called KaroveXXaroi, and their domi- 
nions comprised the Trinobantes eastward, and part of the Bodouni 
or Dobuni (Gloucestershire) westward. " Mepog rwv Bodovviov wv 
k-nrjpxpv [Caractacus and Togodumnus] KaroveXXavol ovreg." — Dion, 
lx. 20. The best map of Britannia Eomana will be found in Monum. 
Hist. Brit. 

1 The Trinobantes were the people of Essex, and Camulodunum, or 
Colchester, was their capital : "Tpivoavreg kv oig iroXig Ka/xov^oXai'oi'." 
— Ptol. ii. 3, 22. They appear not to have reached westward beyond 
the river Lea, for Ptolemy places London (ascribed, as regards 
Southwark, to the Cantii) in longitude 20, and the North Foreland 
in longitude 22 ; and between these two points Colchester, the ca- 
pital of the Trinobantes, in longitude 21, and Venta (Norwich), the 
capital of the Simeni or Iceni, as well as the opening of the estuary 
of the Thames, in longitude 20J ; and he then speaks of the Trino- 
bantes as to the east of the Simeni, and along the estuary of the 
Thames, having the Isles of Sheppey and Thanet opposite. 

Aovlivov . . . . . . .20 

'lajjcriaa eiax v(TL ^ [Thames estuary] . . . 20£ 

Sifievot nap* dig noXig Ovevra [Norwich] . . • 20i 

Kcu avaToXtuwrepoi itapa tt]V 'Iaju^tra eia^yatv, Tpi- 

voavreg kv oig ttuXiq KafiovhoXavov [Colchester] . .21 

Kavnov uKpov [North Foreland] . . . .22 

Kara £e tovq Tpivoavrag vr\aoi t\a\v aids 

ToXiamg [Sheppey] . . . . .23 

Kwovvvog vfjaog [Thanet] . . . .24: 

It will be observed that Ptolemy, by mistake, places the islands of 
Sheppey and Thanet a little to the east, instead of the west, of the 
North Foreland. 



1 PREPARATIONS. 

now implored his intervention to restore him to the 
throne. The astute Eoman at once discerned the use 
to be made of Mandubert's presence, and retained him 
in his camp with large promises of redress. The British 
refugee would accompany the expedition, and knowing 
the country would be an invaluable guide. Besides, to 
succour the unfortunate would be a plausible pretext 
for interference in British politics ; and it might rea- 
sonably be expected that, when the victorious gene- 
ral appeared in the neighbourhood, the Trinobantes, 
smarting under the yoke of Cassivelaun, would break 
out into open rebellion in favour of their deliverer. 

In the spring of the year therefore, Csesar, the better 
to insure success against a most determined foe, gave 
directions for extensive preparations, particularly for 
the construction of a fleet upon a new principle. The 
ships were all to be flat-bottomed, and to be propelled 
by oars as well as sails. 1 The advantage anticipated 
from these deviations from the ordinary model were, 
that the vessels could he in shallow water and ap- 
proach closer to shore, and be easily hauled up, and 
the rowage would make them independent of wind 
and tide, which had before so much baffled liim. The 
equipment of this armament would occupy a consider- 
able time, especially as some of the materials were 
to be fetched from Spain 2 , and the interval was to 
be employed in the discharge of a prefect's duty in 
making the circuit of the different countries within his 
jurisdiction, for the purpose of composing nascent 

1 "Panllo humiliores . . paullo latiores . . actuariae" — B. G.v.l. 
<{ 'Ev /ue'ffw tuv te ff(p£TEp(ov ruiv Ta^EiuJy,KalTU)y clvtoOev twv (popradioy, 

3TT10Q WQ fiaXl(TTa KCli KOVfl^iOffl, KCti TTpOQ TO KVfJia CIVTE^CJCTIV, ETTl TE 

fypov IffTajjiEvai jutt) XvfxaivwvTai." — Dion, xl. 1. 

2 "Ea qua? sunt usui ad arniandas naves ex Hispania apportari 
jubet." — B. G.v.l. 



CESAR IN ITALY. 77 

disorders, and for the adininistration of justice. He 
first visited Cisalpine Gaul, and held the assizes there 
in the principal towns. 1 These may have been con- 
cluded about the end. of February. He then proceeded 
to Ulyricurn, where he compelled the submission of the 
Procrusta3 (who, taking advantage of his absence, had 
invaded the province), and then held the assizes for Uly- 
ricurn. 2 The latter may have lasted till the end of April. 
Caesar usually returned from Ulyricurn to Gaul at 
the beginning of summer or about May 3 , and we know 
that he did so this year, as he tells us that on his way 
back he passed through Cisalpine Gaul 4 ; and we learn 
from one of Ca3sar's letters that Quintus Cicero, the 
brother of the orator, was with Caesar at Laude 
(twenty-four miles from Placentia and sixteen from 
Milan) on 7th May. 5 It was of great importance 
to Caesar at this time to keep Mark Tully his friend, 
and with this view he offered Quintus Cicero the 
command of one of his legions. 6 Both Caesar and 
Quintus wrote to Cicero from Laude, and it is amus- 
ing to see how the ambitious and politic general 
humours the innocent vanity of the simple-minded 
orator. Caesar even went so far as to commend Cice- 
ro's verses, and complimentary language could not be 
carried further. 7 Both Caesar and Quintus were at this 

1 " Conventibus Gallia? citerioris peractus." — B. G. v. 1. 

2 " Conventibus peractis." — B. G. v. 2. 

3 " Quas legationes Caesar, quod in Italiam Illyricumque properabat, 
inita proximo, cestate ad se reverti jubet." — B. G. iii. 35. 

4 " In citeriorem Galliam revertitur." — B. G. v. 2. 

5 " A. d. iv. non. Jun., quo die Romam veni, accepi tuas litteras 
datas Placentiag ; deinde alteras postridie, datas Laude nonis, cum 
Caesaris litteris. . . . Litterse vero ejus una datas cum tuis." — Cic. 
Ep. ad Q. Fr. ii. 15. 

6 Caas. B. G. v. 24. 

7 "Scribis poema ab eo nostrum probari." — Cic. ad Q. Fr. ii. 15. 



78 CESAR'S RETURN TO GAUL. 

time full of the intended expedition against Britain ; 
and Quintus, at the instance of Caesar, suggests that 
Tully should employ his pen in describing the approach- 
ing triumphs. " Give me only Britain," says Tully, in 
an ecstasy, " and I will paint it in your colours, but 
with my brush. But what am I saying 1 What leisure 
can I have, especially if, as Caesar wishes, I remain 
at Eome ! — but we shall see." 1 As we hear nothing of 
any panegyric by Cicero upon Caesar's British campaign, 
we may conclude that the result did not exactly answer 
to the nattering picture which hope had foreshadowed. 
Caesar reached the northern coast of Gaul in the 
latter part of May, and on arriving found, to his infinite 
satisfaction, that his orders for preparations had been 
punctually obeyed. About 600 transports and 28 war 
galleys had been constructed in the different ports along 
the coast, and all of them either ready or capable of 
being launched within a few days. 2 Caesar directed the 
vessels to rendezvous at Portus Itius, i. e. the port of 
Boulogne 3 , and in the meantime proceeded himself with 
the light troops and 800 cavalry against the Treviri, 
or people of Treves (the town on the Moselle at the 
junction of the Saar), who had lately shown some signs 
of disaffection. Caesar was not long in quelling the 
disturbances in that quarter, and about midsummer, or 
24th June 4 , returned to Boulogne, where he found his 



1 "Modo mini date Britanniara ; quani pingam coloribus tuis, pe- 
nicillo meo. Sed quid ago ? quod mihi tempus, Romae prsesertim, 
ut ipse me rogat, manenti, vacuum ostenditur ? sed videro." — Cic. 
Ep. ad Q. Fr. ii. 15. 

2 " Neque multum abesse ab eo, quin paucis diebus deduci 
possent." — B. G. v. 2. 

3 B. G. v. 2. 

4 "Ne sestatem in Treviris consumere cogeretur." — B. G. v. 4. 






(LESAR AT BOULOGNE. 70 

army and fleet assembled, viz. 8 legions of foot, 4000 
horse, 560 transports, and 28 war galleys ; 40 ships, 
which had been built on the Seine, had, from the pre- 
valence of the north-western gales, been prevented from 
reaching the port. 1 The continuance of the adverse 
wind from the north-west detained Caesar at Boulogne 
for the next twenty-five days, or until 18th July. 2 At 
length on that day, when was the full moon, the wind 
shifted to the south-west 3 , the quarter most favourable 
for a passage to Britain 4 ; and Cassar gave the word for 
embarcation. 5 At full moon it is high tide at Boulogne 
at 11.20, and we may suppose that the ships then, or 
a little before, began to drop down the harbour, and 
anchor outside, to be ready for sailing. An unexpected 

1 The motley group now collected on the banks of the Liane has 
been graphically described by an anonymous contributor to a popular 
periodical : " The legions of Caesar, and all their various auxiliaries 
and attendants ; the Gaulish and German cavalry, the Numidian light 
horsemen, the Spanish infantry, the Cretan archers, and the 
slingers from the Balearic Isles ; besides the crowds of sutlers and 
followers, the calones and mercatores, and all the various costumes 
and callings connected with the naval portion of the expedition." — 
II. L. L. : Gent. Mag. vol. xxvi. (1846) p. 251. See Cses. B. G. ii. 7. 

2 " Itaque dies circiter xxv, in eo loco commoratus, quod Corus 
ventus navigationem impediebat, qui magnam partem omnis tem- 
poris in his locis flare consuevit." — B. G. v. 7. That corus or the 
north-west, prevents all egress from Boulogne, we have the testi- 
mony of Mariette. " Le vent Corus (N.O.) empecherait, et a toujours 
empeche, de sortir du port de Gesoriacum [Boulogne]." — Mariette, 
p. 68. 

3 " Leni Africo provectus." — B. G. v. 8. 

4 " Le vent Africus encore aujourd'hui est le plus favorable a la 
traversee de Boulogne a Douvres." — Mariette, p. 34. 

5 Orosius says that Caesar sailed, " primo vere " (Orosius, cited Mo- 
num. Hist. Brit. p. lxxix.); and Dion, " eiteiS)) 7rXw7/ia iyeVero" (Dion, 
xl. 1) : but the precise time as stated in the text cannot be ques- 
tioned. 



80 DEATH OF DUMNORIX. 

occurrence occasioned a little delay. Dumnorix, the 
disaffected prince of the iEdui, brother of Divitiacus, 
the friend of Cicero 1 , and whom Caesar had insisted on 
taking with him to Britain, in order to prevent his 
mischievous meddling at home, availed himself of the 
confusion of embarcation to ride fairly off with his 
iEduan troopers. No sooner was Caesar apprised of it 
than he stopped the embarcation of his own cavalry, 
and despatched them in pursuit, with directions to 
bring back Dumnorix dead or alive. Dumnorix was 
overtaken, and on his resistance was slain. The ca- 
valry of Caesar returned to the camp, and at sunset, 
which would be at 8.6 p. m., Caesar set sail for Britain, 
with a moderate breeze from the south-west. 2 

The expedition consisted of five legions (which, allow- 
ing 4,200 men to each, would give a total of 21,000 
foot), and a body of 2000 cavalry; and a fleet of 28 
triremes and 560 transports, besides numerous tenders, 
which, added to the rest, made the formidable figure of 
800 sail. The transports, however, were small ; for if 
560 vessels carried only 21,000 troops, each of them 
must have been freighted with about 37 only. One of 
the reasons which Caesar assigns for this substitution 
of small row-boats for the heavier class of vessels, which 
had before carried 150 each, appears not to be so well 
founded as most of Caesar's conclusions. He had learnt, 
he says, by experience, that, from the frequent changes 
of the tide in the channel, there was not the same vio- 
lence of the waves. 3 It will be seen in the sequel that 

1 B. G. i. 19. Cic. de Divin. i. 41. 

2 " Solis occasu naves solvit, leni Africo provectus." — B. G. v. 8. 

3 " Quod propter crebras commutationes Eestuum minus magnos 
ibi nuctus fieri cognoverat." — B. G. v. 1 



PASSAGE TO BRITAIN. 81 

the Straits of Dover were, at all events, an overmatch 
for the small craft thus studiously prepared. 

The light breeze from the south-west, which had wafted 
the fleet from Boulogne, died away as they stretched out 
to sea, and by midnight there was a dead calm. When the 
morning broke, which, as the sun rose at 4 A. M., would 
be about half-past three, the high cliffs between Folke- 
stone and Dover were visible on their left. 1 The tide had 
been running eastward for the last six hours, and had 
carried them so far out of their course as to drift them 
beyond, or at least up to, the South Foreland. Caesar 
had intended to effect his debarcation, as before, on 
Eomney marsh, off Limne, and he was therefore quite 
out of the line. The tide, however, now again turned 
westward, and by dint of rowing, with the current in 
their favour, the whole fleet, transports as well as 
triremes, gained by 12 o'clock at noon, the familiar 
level shore just opposite Limne. 2 

So much controversy has been raised as to the place 
of debarcation, that I must call attention, in passing, to 
some material points- in this account, which, if I mistake 
not, will prove incontestably that Caesar must have 
sailed from Boulogne to Limne, and could not have 

1 " Leni Africo provectus, media circiter nocte vento intermisso, 
cursum non tenuit, et longius delatus asstu, ortu, luce, sub sinistra 
Britanniam relictam conspexit." — B. G. v. 8. 

2 " Turn rursus asstus commutationem secutus remis contendit ut 
earn partem insula? caperet qua optimum esse egressum superiore 
sestate cognoverat. Accessum est ad Britanniam omnibus navibus 
meridiano fere tempore." — J3. G: v. 8. It has been suggested by an 
ingenious savant, that Caesar did not seek the identical place where 
he had landed before, but another point which he had ascertained by 
inquiry the previous year to be more convenient. This, however, 
is not the natural meaning, and Dion did not so understand it. 
" Kurjjpe re ovv evQa Kai Trportpoi'." — Dion, xl. 1. 

G 



82 PASSAGE TO BRITAIN. 

landed at Deal ; still less could have made the passage 
from the estuary of the Somme to Pevensey. I think 
no one can doubt that, when Csesar discovered Britain 
on liis left hand, he must have drifted through the 
Straits of Dover, or at least have been off the South 
Foreland, with the head of his vessel toward Deal. 
Now, this exactly agrees with the hypothesis that Csesar 
set out from Boulogne, and made for the coast off 
Limne, but is not to be reconciled with any other 
theory. The captain of one of the steamers plying 
between Folkestone and Boulogne informed me, when 
I inquired some years ago what was the rate at which 
a vessel drifted in the channel, that the maximum drift 
for a single tide, i. e. for the six hours that the stream 
runs in the same direction, is eighteen miles, and the 
minimum nine miles. 1 The fleet of Csesar was heavily 
freighted, and therefore, sinking deep into the water, 
would receive the full shock of the tide. Csesar, too, 
was steering across the Strait, so that the broadside of 

1 Mr. Barton, of Dover, than whom I could not have a more intel- 
ligent correspondent, consulted for me an experienced pilot and also 
the captain of a vessel, and communicated to me the following results : 
— " The maximum velocity of the tide (that is, a spring tide) is about 
3^ miles an hour ; the minimum (that is when it is a neap tide) is 
about lj miles an hour. A loaded vessel would drift about 12 or 14 
miles in the six hours, when the tide is at its greatest velocity, but 
when at the minimum not more than 6 or 7. This would also be in- 
fluenced by the wind and the depth the vessel was in the water — 
the greater the draught, the greater the velocity." The harbour 
master of Folkestone, in a letter for which I have to thank him, dated 
December 16th, 1858, tells me "that an average vessel, broadside 
on, would drift two miles per hour, or perhaps more ; but that of 
course presumes a perfect calm, as the action of the wind would 
materially affect the drift." The greatest velocity of the tide 
between Dover and Dungeness is stated in the Tidal Tables for 
1859, p. 135, to be 3.3 knots per hour. 



PASSAGE TO BRITAIX. 83 

the vessel would be presented to the current. It is 
also to be remarked that the expedition was on the 
very day of the full moon, when, of course, it was a 
spring tide. The drift therefore, under these circum- 
stances, would be the maximum, or near it. Now, if 
we draw a straight line from Boulogne to Limne, and 
then a line of sixteen miles, or thereabouts, at right 
angles to it up the Channel, it will take us to a point 
off the South Foreland 1 ; so that, with the head of the 
vessel to the north, the cliffs between Folkestone and 
Dover would be on the left hand. But how could this 
have happened had Caesar sailed from the Somme to 
Pevensey — for, allowing even the maximum drift to the 
fleet through the night, it is quite impossible that Caesar 
could have swerved so much from a line between the 
Somme and Pevensey as to have passed the Strait of 
Dover, or even to have entered it? 

How, again, could he have been sailing to Deal, when, 
so soon as the deviation from the right course was dis- 
covered, Caesar took the turn of the tide back, and fol- 
lowed the current 2 , in order to gain his former landing- 
place % If he was making for Limne, this is just what 
he would do, i. e. having been forced by the tide to the 
east during the night, to a point off the South Foreland, 
he would in the morning, when the tide turned west, 
have it in his favour for a passage to Limne. But if 
he were sailing for Deal, so far from retracing his 
course, he ought still to have advanced in the same 
direction, and, at all events, could not be said to follow 
the tide when he was steering athwart it. Besides, as 
it must necessarily have been almost low water when 

1 A sea line from Limne to the South Foreland is by the 
Ordnance maps 16 miles. 

2 " Rursus sestus commutationem secutus" — B. G. v. 8. 



84 TIME OF THE INVASION. 

the tide turned, had he held on for Deal he would 
infallibly have struck on the Goodwin Sands. 

I have mentioned that Csesar sailed at the full moon 
on 18th July, but I have not stated upon what grounds 
this conclusion rests, and as it is not directly asserted in 
the Commentaries, you may fairly ask for the data on 
which it is based. In the first place, we are informed 
that when Csesar, on his return from Illyricum, was 
amongst the Treviri, he was anxious not to consume 
the summer there 1 , from which it results that it was 
about midsummer, or 24th June, and as he waited 
twenty-five days at Boulogne before he set sail, this 
would bring us to the latter half of July. But we have 
more direct testimony to the same effect from the letters 
of Cicero. I have already remarked that Q. Cicero, 
the orator's brother, was with Caesar in this expedition, 
and as, during the whole time, a continual correspond- 
ence was maintained between Quintus and Mark, the 
latter would be well apprised of every movement of 
the expedition. Accordingly, M. Cicero, in a letter to 
Atticus, dated 28th July, writes thus: — "From the 
letters of my brother Quintus, I conjecture that he is, 
by this time, in Britain." 2 We are, therefore, prepared 
to find that the fleet, according to Cicero's expectation, 
sailed in the latter half of July. M. Cicero, in another 
letter to Quintus, acknowledges the receipt of actual 
intelligence of his brother's arrival in Britain 3 ; and, as 
the transmission of a letter from Britain to Eome occu- 
pied about a month, the debarcation must have been 

1 " Ne aestatem in Treviris consumere cogeretur." — B. G. v. 4. 

2 "Ex Quinti fratris Uteris suspicor jam eum esse in Britannia." 
— Ep. Att. iv. 15, 8. 

3 " O jucnndas mihi tuas de Britannia literas ! Timebam oceanum, 
timebam littus insula?," &c. — Cic. Ep. ad Q. Fr. ii. 16. 



TIME OF THE INVASION. 85 

about a month before the despatch of Cicero's letter to 
Quintus. I should fatigue you too much by going into 
the minutiae by which the date of the letter can be 
ascertained ; but, suffice it to say that there are certain 
allusions in it to the trials of Drusus and Scaurus, which 
prove it to have been written in the latter half of 
August. The landing in Britain, therefore, must have 
occurred in the latter half of July. So far we ascertain 
the month only, but we can make a nearer approach 
from another circumstance incidentally mentioned. 
We have seen that on the morning after the embarca- 
tion at Boulogne, and soon after daylight (which in the 
month of July would be about 3.30 A.M.), Caesar took the 
turn of the tide westward. Now the tide begins to run 
westward in the Channel at 3.30 A. M. on the day after 
the full moon, and at the same hour on the day after 
the new moon : the day of embarcation, therefore, was 
one of two days — viz. either the 3d July, when it was 
new moon ; or 18th July, when it was full moon. The 
latter was certainly the day in question, for on the very 
night after the debarcation in Britain, Caesar marched 
his army twelve miles into the interior 1 , and he could 
not have done this when there was no moon, that is, 
in total darkness, but by the aid of the full moon no 
difficulty would be experienced. We may therefore 
infer, with the highest probability, that Caesar sailed 
from Boulogne either on the very 18th July, b. c. 54, or, 
at all events, within a day or two either before or 
after it. 

On reaching the shore off Limne, Caesar expected, as 
in the previous year, to see the beach lined with the 
enemy in hostile attitude. Instead of that, not a living 

1 B. G. v. 9. 

G 3 



86 DEBARCATION. 

soul was to be seen. It was marvellous, but so it was. 
It appears that the Britons had intended to dispute the 
landing, and had swarmed along the coast for the pur- 
pose ; but that, on descrying in the horizon 800 ships, 
they had despaired of success, and retired up the 
country. If, the year before, they had been unable to 
encounter eighty ships, how could they now withstand 
800 % The debarcation would be so extended that 
the Britons could not possibly cope with it at every 
point. 1 Cotta, indeed, who served under Csesar in this 
campaign, affirms that the fleet consisted of even 1000 
ships. 2 Besides it is certain that all the army of the 
Britons had not yet been collected, and the forces now 
in the field were chiefly, if not exclusively, the men 
of Kent and Sussex. 

The debarcation was thus effected without obstruc- 
tion, and the vessels, after having discharged their 
freights, were anchored in Dungeness Bay. The next 
thing was to fortify a camp. On the last occasion, it 
had been pitched on the shore, that the communication 
with the sea might not be cut off, and in order to afford 
protection to the triremes which had been hauled on the 
beach ; but now Cassar was at the- head of an army 
which defied opposition, and, accordingly, he tells us 
that he selected for his camp an appropriate place. 3 I 
should imagine, therefore, that the ground chosen was 
not, as before, on the marsh, but on the high platform 
overlooking it at Limne, perhaps on the site of Limne 
castle. Some may be of opinion that it was the camp 
at Shorncliffe, but this was at some distance from the 
place of landing, and was separated from it by an arm 

1 u 'Yit6 tov 7ro\\a^6(7e ajuo avrovc Karacr^elv." — Dion, xl. 1. 

2 Athen. vi. 105. 

3 "Loco castris idoneo capto." — B. G. v. 9. 



MARCH TO THE STOUR. 87 

of the sea. The actual camp, too, was afterwards con- 
nected with the ships, which were drawn up within its 
defences ; but, at Shorncliffe, there are no traces of any 
ramparts from the camp to the sea, and, indeed, the 
shore below the camp is not soft and open, as Caesar 
describes, but is rocky and precipitous, so as to preclude 
the possibility of there drawing up the vessels. 

Caesar now elicited from some captives who fell into 
his hands by what road the enemy had retired. Can- 
terbury was then, as at present, the capital of Kent, 
and the British troops had retreated in that direction. 
Caesar, with his wonted activity, determined on follow- 
ing them at once, before their army was swelled by any 
accession of numbers. He, therefore, gave his troops a 
few hours' respite, and then, leaving Quintus Atrius, 
with ten cohorts and 300 horse, in command of the 
camp, commenced, at twelve o'clock at night, his 
march into the interior in quest of the enemy. 

It was full moon 1 , and between Limne the port, 
and Canterbury the capital, there was a good road; 
and Caesar had Mandubert, the exiled prince of the 
Trinobantes, for his guide ; and a night march, there- 
fore, was easily effected. When they had accomplished 
twelve miles, and, therefore (as the sun rose about four), 
at break of day on the 20th July, the Britons were in 
sight. If we measure twelve miles from Limne along 
the road to Canterbury, it will bring us to Wye, on the 
southern bank of the river Stour. The Britons were 
posted in Challock Wood, an eminence about a mile off 
on the other, or north, side of the river. As many of 
you may not be acquainted with the locality, I will 



The moon rose between 7 and 8 p. m. and would set between 
a 4 



4 and 5 in the morning. 



88 POSITION OF THE BRITONS. 

attempt a brief sketch of it. As you pass by the rail- 
way from Eeigate to Dover, a line of chalk hills rims 
parallel on the left hand. At Ashford they are inter- 
sected by the valley of the Stour. The termination of 
the chalk range on the north of the Stour is the highest 
point in that part, and is, and no doubt always was, 
covered by a dense wood. I walked up to it from 
Wye, and never beheld such a sylvan rampart. No 
position could be more suitable to the tactics of the 
Britons. By felling trees and laying them lengthwise 
they had formed a stockade, and, as the wood was tra- 
versed in all directions by alleys or lanes, the cavalry 
and charioteers could issue from their covert at any 
moment. Besides, the eminence presented a most ex- 
tensive view of tile adjacent country, on the north as 
far as the Thames, and on the south as far as Limne, so 
that the Britons could watch the Eoman line of march 
all the way from their camp. On the southern side of 
the Stour, the chalk hills again rise up to their former 
height, and the intervening valley, a little Thermopylae, 
was the only practicable road for the tram of an army 
towards Canterbury. The Britons, by thus seizing on 
Challock Wood, obliged the enemy either to attack 
them at a disadvantage, or, by passing through the 
gorge, to endanger the communication with their camp 
supplies. 

Caesar tells us that the fastness of the Britons was 
strong by nature and stronger by art, and suggests 
that the defences had been prepared long before 
against some domestic foe. 1 If so, we must imagine 
(and we can scarcely do so without a smile) that war 

1 " Locum nacti egregie et natura et opere miinitmn, quem do- 
mestici belli, ut videbatur, causa jam ante prseparaverant." — 
B. G. v. 9. 



T0S1TI0N OF THE BRITONS. 89 

had been declared by the four kings of Kent, of whom 
we shall speak presently, against as many kings of the 
Eegni, or people of Sussex. Challock Wood, then, was 
the great military post of the Britons ; but, should you 
look there for the remains of walls and ditches, you will 
probably search in vain, for the Commentaries speak not 
of fortifications composed of bricks and stone, but only 
of a continuous sylvan barricade. 1 Dion Cassius goes 
more into detail, and clearly implies that there was no 
wall, or vallum, in the Eoman fashion, but that trees 
had been cut and piled one upon another, so as in a 
certain sense only to claim the character of a rampart. 2 
As Cassar with his legions approached the Stour, the 
Britons, who from the heights had been observing his 
advance, sent down their cavalry and charioteers to 
dispute the passage of the river, not that they could 
hope to prevent his crossing, but with the view of in- 
flicting as much loss as possible. Now a river as a 
military defence has a double aspect. Either it is full, 
when the depth of water is a serious obstacle to the 
free movement of the troops, more particularly when 
encumbered with arms ; or the stream is low, when the 
channel of the river forms a fosse, or ditch, which 
gives the enemy on the opposite bank the advantage of 
higher ground. In the month of July the beds of 
rivers have usually but little water, but this might not 
have been so here ; for, when I was at Wye even later 
in the year, viz. in August, the Stour for some distance 
had the appearance of a considerable river, and was full 
to the brim, which was owing simply to the circum- 

1 " Crebris arboribus succisis omnes introitus erant praBclusi." — 
B. G. v. 9. 

2 " Ta te yap iripii, £v\a ekq^clv, kcu erepa iir avrolg <JTOiyj]l!>bv ettl- 
ffvi'Evrjcrav, wore iv ^apa/ccu'/jan Tpoirov riva ttj/cu." — Dion, xl. 2. 



90 DEFEAT OF THE BRITONS. 

stance that at Wye is a mill-dam by which the water 
is penned back. I should rather imagine, however, 
that, at the time of which we are speaking, the Stour 
was such as I saw it below the mill-dam, viz. a broad 
and nearly empty channel ; for it is stated in the Com- 
mentaries that, when the legions attempted the passage, 
the Britons encountered them from the higher ground, 
which I take to mean from the elevation of the bank. 1 
At length the river was forced, though not with impu- 
nity 2 , and the Britons withdrew into their defences. 
Cassar now advanced upon the wood ; and desultory 
assaults on the one side, and sallies on the other, were 
frequent along the line. Eventually, Cassar's seventh 
legion, covering themselves with the testudo formed by 
holding the shield over the head, so as to present an im- 
penetrable roof, threw up a mound against the barri- 
cade, and so scaled it 3 , and thus retrieved the disgrace 
which the Britons had inflicted upon them the preceding 
year in the corn field at Limne. Ca3sar, however, did 
not follow up his victory, partly from fear of an am- 
bush, and partly from the lateness of the hour. The 
next day, 21st July, the army was ordered to advance 
in pursuit, in three divisions. However, they had not 
proceeded far, and the rear-guard was still in sight, 
when suddenly they were recalled, from disastrous in- 
telligence brought in hot haste from the camp. 

It seems that a violent hurricane from the east had 
swept the sea the preceding night, and the eight hundred 

1 "Illi equitatu atque essedisad flumen progressi, ex loco superi- 
or e nostros prohibere et prselium committere coeperunt." — B. G. v. 9. 
So, " ut ex locis superioribus in littus telum adjici posset." — B. G. 
v. 9. 

2 si 1tvy\'ovQ avTaniKTEtr av '." — Dion, xl. 2. 

3 " Testudine facta et aggere ad munitiones adjecto." — B. G. v. 9. 



THE STORM. 91 

vessels lying at anchor in Dungeness Bay had broken 
away from their moorings, and been dashed against each 
other, and most of them had been thrown upon the shore. 
In short, very serious damage had been sustained, and 
mounted messengers had been immediately sent off with 
the intelligence. Caesar returned at once, and found 
the sad reality nothing short of the description. Forty 
ships were utterly lost ; the rest were miserably shat- 
tered, but capable of repair. The pioneers and car- 
penters of the army were now set to work, and other 
artisans were sent for from the Continent ; and Labienus, 
who had been left in Gaul, was ordered to employ the 
legions which were with him in laying down and com- 
pleting as many new vessels as possible. 

To prevent the recurrence of such another disaster, 
Caesar determined, though it was an undertaking of 
Herculean labour, to haul up the whole of his fleet 
on dry land, and secure them against any assault from 
the enemy, by placing them within the defences of the 
camp. The legionaries, 21,000 in number, were en- 
gaged upon this arduous task for ten days and ten 
nights, i. e. until the 31st July, without intermission. 1 

If Caesar's camp was pitched, as is likely, on the 
table-land overlooking the marsh near Limne, in short, 
on the site where Limne castle now stands, we should 
look for the naval defences immediately contiguous; 
and if we walk down the slope from the castle to the 
marsh, we come upon a very remarkable ruin called 
Stuttfall, a name said to be composed of the two Saxon 
words stoute wall, or strong fort. Others derive it from 

1 " Ipse, etsi res erat multas opera* ac laboris, tarn en commodissi- 
mum esse statuit omnes naves subduci, et cum castris una niunitione 
conjungi. In his rebus circiter dies x consumit, ne nocturnis qui- 
dem temporibus ad laborem militum intermissis." — B. G. v. 11. 



92 STUTTFALL. 

two Saxon words signifying a " fallen place ;" and others 
from stced-weall, sea shore. That Stuttfall was erected 
by Csesar I will not take upon myself to affirm, but in 
many respects it answers most singularly to the charac- 
ter of the naval castrum now constructed. Stuttfall is 
certainly a Eoman work, as is evident from the layers 
of Eoman tiles. The walls are of amazing thickness, 
and enclose, it is said, no less a space than ten or twelve 1 
acres of ground. Caesar might, therefore, well describe 
it as castra egregie munita, & camp wonderfully strong. 2 
I have examined it very closely, and the first observa- 
tion that occurs to one is, How could a military fortress 
have been pitched on the side of the hill, and not on 
the smnmit] There must certainly have been some 
other than a mere military object in view. The castle 
above shows that the builders knew where a fortress 
should be placed. The wonder is increased when we 
remark the broken ramparts on the north, and east, 
and west sides of the square, and look in vain on the 
south, at the foot of the descent, for any trace of a for- 
tification. Indeed, in this direction, the area is per- 
fectly open. The explanation of this is as follows : — 
In ancient times the sea, as is proved incontestably by 
the fragments of ships and anchors which have been 
dug up, flowed up to the very base of the lull, and 
formed there the port of Limne. Stuttfall, therefore, 
was built for the protection of the shipping ; so that, 
naturally enough, the site was not like the castle on the 
summit, but on the slope toward the foot. The fourth 
or southern side of the square, being washed by the 
waves, needed no artificial defence. Caesar then might 

1 10 acres {Lambcuxles Peramb. 18-4) ; 12 acres (Stukeleys 
Itin. 123). 

2 B. G. v. 11. 



STUTTFALL. 93 

have brought his vessels up the creek of Limne, and 
have drawn them on shore beneath his camp, and then 
have surrounded them by this strong massive rampart. 
It is also observable that the wall is built in many 
places as if in a hurry, from materials supplied by other 
more ancient buildings. 

It will be objected, perhaps, that a wall of such pro- 
digious strength, round a space of ten or twelve acres, 
could not possibly have been completed in ten days ; 
but we must remember that 21,000 legionaries and 
2000 cavalry were employed upon it day and night, 
and not only so, but workmen also were brought over 
from Gaul. Besides, it is not said that it was completed 
in ten days, but only that it was in such a state of for- 
wardness by that time that Caesar could with safety 
leave ten cohorts and 300 horse there, and return him- 
self in search of the enemy. The work may have been 
brought to perfection in a much longer period by the 
troops which remained in garrison. 

If it be thought a difficulty that a numerous fleet 
should have been dragged up an ascent like that at 
Stuttfall, let it be remembered that the year before, 
their fleet, when resting on the sea beach, had been 
swamped by the spring tide; and Cassar, anxious to 
prevent any similar accident, had since constructed 
his ships of so little bulk (carrying each a freight 
of 37 men only), that they could all be drawn on 
land with the greatest ease. Stuttfall, from its gentle 
elevation above the sea level, would therefore be exactly 
the place where we might expect that the fleet would 
be secured. 

If it be said that even ten or twelve acres of ground, 
though a large space, would not suffice for 560 ships, to 
say nothing of the 240 tenders, we reply that the rest 



94 STUTTFALL. 

might have been drawn up on the marsh immediately 
below, for mounds of earth like remains of fortifications 
are still to be seen there ; and, as on the marsh advantage 
would be taken of wet ditches, the same strength of 
walls would not be required as on the slope, where the 
ramparts themselves were the only protection. 

It must be confessed that the coins found at Stuttfall 
are those only of the Eoman emperors from Antoninus 
Pius to Valens 1 ; but this does not prove that Stuttfall 
was not a Eoman station in the time of Csesar, for his 
sojourn in Britain was very brief, about two months 
only, and for a hundred years after him the Eomans 
never set foot upon the island. Even if the identical 
walls which remain were not reared by Caesar, it is still 
open to conjecture that his naval camp was on this 
spot, and that the Eomans of an after-age adopted his 
plan, and built the present gigantic rampart in the 
place of a more hasty circumvallation thrown up by 
the great captain. 

It was while Caesar and his army were detained by 
the seaside that Q. Cicero took the opportunity of 
announcing his arrival in Britain to M. Tully. The 
feelings which the letter excited in the breast of the 
accomplished orator are as full of nature as they are 
replete with vanity. " Now," he says, in his answer to 
Quintus, " I come last to that which should, perhaps, 
have stood first ! that dehghtful letter of yours from 
Britain ! I had been so fearful of the ocean, so fearful 
of the coasts of the island ! I do not speak slightingly of 
all the rest, but the rest carries more of hope than of 
fear, and I am rather upon the tiptoe of expectation 
than under serious alarm. But I see that you have a 

1 Roach Smith's Antiq. of Kichbor and Limne. 



KETURN TO THE STOUR. 95 

brave subject for composition. What sites ! what 
descriptions of places and tilings ! what manners ! what 
nations ! what battles ! and, above all, what a com- 
mander-in-chief ! ! I will gladly assist you, as you asked 
me, in what you wish. I will forward ycu the verses you 
desire, y7^otix el$ 'A6r t vag. But, I say, you seem to have 
forgotten me ! For, tell me, my brother, what thought 
Caesar of my verses ? for he wrote me word before, that 
he had read the first book, and that, taking the com- 
mencement as a sample, he had never read anything 
finer, not even of the Greeks. The rest he had reserved 
till he was more at leisure (paSufxarspa) : for I use his 
very word. But tell me candidly whether either the 
subject or the style fails to please. No need to fear, for 
I shall not think a whit the worse of myself. Out with 
it, and write like a true brother as you are." l 

Caesar now (about August) put himself again at the 
head of Iris legions, to recover the position which such 
unwelcome tidings from the fleet had constrained him 
to abandon. During the interval which had elapsed 
the British cause had prospered, and now assumed a 
very different aspect. We have seen that Cassivelaun, 
king of the Catyeuchlani (Hertfordsliire and Middlesex), 
had triumphed in the war against Imanuent, king of 
the Trinobantes (Essex), had slain Imanuent, driven 
out his son Mandubert, and possessed himself of the 

1 Cic. Ep. ad Q. Fr. ii. 16. 

2 B. G. v. 20. The name of Mandubert appears to be derived 
from " Man " in its modern sense, for it is translated by the word 
Andro-gorius (Oros. cited Mon. Hist. Brit. p. lxxix.), or Andro- 
gius (Bede, cited ib. 110), evidently derived from avi)p, a man. The 
same word also entered into the name of his father I-man-uent. One 
is almost tempted to interpret Imanuentius, the man of Venta or 
Norwich ; and Mandubratius, the man of Dover (i. e. Dover Court) 
or Harwich. 



96 CASSIVELAUN. 

kingdom of the vanquished. Cassivelami's territory 
was now bounded by the Thames to the sonth, and by 
the ocean to the east^ According to Caesar, it was di- 
vided from the maritime states by the Thames, at 
the distance of abont eighty miles from the sea. 1 
This is interpreted by some to mean that Cassive- 
lami's borders began at the distance of eighty miles 
from the mouth of the Thames, but surely the more 
natural signification is simply that the Thames, which 
was the boundary line to the south, was eighty miles 
from the Kentish coast; and, if we measure from 
Limne, where Caesar landed, to the point where he is 
said to have forded the river, the distance would be 
about eighty Eoman miles. 

This aggrandisement of Cassivelaun was, of course, 
regarded by the states to the south of the Thames with 
no little jealousy; and it was only on hearing of the 
enormous preparations which the Romans were making 
in Gaul, that, feeling themselves utterly incapable of 
meeting the storm alone, they had dropped under the 
pressure of the moment all minor considerations, and 
required the aid of Cassivelaun, and constituted him 
the generalissimo of their united forces. The rapidity 
of Caesar's movements had taken the troops of the south- 
erns by surprise, and Caesar, but for the necessity of 
returning to the fleet, might, by following up the blow 
struck at Challock Wood, have prevented the junction 
of the reinforcements from the north. But, during the 
ten days which were spent at the seaside, Cassivelaun 
with his auxiliaries had arrived at the British camp, 

1 " Cujus fines a maritiniis ciritatibus fhunen dividit, quod appel- 
latur Tamesis, a mari circiter millia passuum lxxx." — B. G. x. 
11. Eighty miles Roman would be seventy-three miles and a 
fraction English. 



CESAR'S ADVANCE. 97 

and the assembled troops were now at least double the 
former number. The charioteers alone amounted to 
upwards of ^OOO. 1 

As Csesar advanced from Limne, the British cavalry 
and charioteers were sent forward to harass the enemy 
during their march. 2 From the naval camp to Wye 
was one continual skirmish between the mounted troops 
of the two armies. Many fell on both sides, without 
any material advantage. The Eomans could always 
retire upon their legions ; and the Britons could always 
take refuge in their woods. The flight of the latter, 
however, was not uncommonly a feint to draw away 
the Eoman cavalry to a distance from the legionaries, 
when the Britons would suddenly wheel about, and 
seldom failed to give proofs of their superiority. 

Notwithstanding these desperate encounters, Caesar's 
legions continued steadily to press forward in the direc- 
tion of Wye. At the close of the day they halted, and 
proceeded to mark out the camp for the night. Two 
cohorts kept guard while the camp was being intrenched, 
when the Britons all at once issued from their woods, and 
drove the two cohorts before them. Csesar immediately 
ordered up two other cohorts to their support, but such 
was the impetuosity of the British charge that the two 
auxiliary cohorts were broken, and the Britons cut their 
way through, and then brought themselves off in safety, 
in defiance of every obstacle. Q. Laberius Durus, a 
military tribune, was one of their victims. 3 The matter 
was now growing serious, and Caesar, to prevent further 
loss, was obliged to bring up the best part of his army, 
when the Britons were repulsed. On the southern 

1 B. G. v. 19. 

2 " 'Ee avrb to vEdjptov (T(j)u>v wp/.tr/0-a^." — Dion, xl. 2. 

3 B. G. v. 15. 

II 



98 SEVERE CONFLICT. 

bank of the Stour, a little to the east of Wye, and op- 
posite Chilham, is a tumulus called " Julliber's Grave," 
and tradition says that it takes its name from Julius's 
tribune Laberius, who fell on this day, and was here 
buried. The locality agrees well, and, had the name 
of the tribune been Julius Laberius, the similarity of 
sound in Julliber, as an abbreviation of Julius Laberius, 
would have been at least a curious coincidence. Un- 
fortunately the prsenomen was Quintus, so that the 
antiquary is obliged to borrow the name of Julius from 
Caesar himself. Of course I attach no importance to 
the popular belief, though there is nothing unreasonable 
or absurd on the face of it. 

The next day (which would be about 2nd Au- 
gust) the Britons showed themselves at intervals on 
the hills, but neither Britons nor Eomans seemed dis- 
posed to renew the conflict. At length, about noon 1 , 
Cassar was under the necessity of dispatching a foraging 
expedition ; and he showed his respect for the foe by 
the force which he employed. He had brought from 
Gaul five legions and 2,000 horse. One legion and 
300 horse had been left in charge of the naval camp 2 , 
and he had with him four legions and 1,700 horse. 
He now retained a single legion within the intrench- 
ments, and ordered C. Trebonius, one of his ablest 
officers, with three legions, more than 12,000 men, and 
the whole of the cavalry, to search the country for 
plunder. While the foragers were engaged upon their 
nefarious occupation, the Britons suddenly started from 
their hiding places and commenced a desperate attack, 
even grasping at the standards. C. Trebonius answered 
well to the high trust reposed in him, for his troops were 

1 " Meridie." — B. G. v. 17. 2 B. G. v. 9, 11. 



CASSIVELAUN CHANGES HIS TACTICS. 99 

instantly under arms and in order, and not only sus- 
tained the onset, but drove the enemy back ; and the 
cavalry so well followed up the blow that the Britons 
could not recover themselves, and a decisive victory 
was gained. This fatal encounter may have taken place 
at Chilham, which lies a little to the east of Wye, but 
on the opposite side of the river, and is said to 
be a corruption of Julham, or Julius's (i. e. Caesar's) 
Town. 1 I should add that Cossar's veracity as to 
his success has been questioned by the Eomans them- 
selves ; for Dion states explicitly that the battle was a 
drawn one. 2 

Cassivelaun was convinced that his troops, most of 
them probably raw recruits, however obstinate their 
valour, could not resist the serried legions of Eome in a 
pitched battle. From this time, therefore, his tactics 
were changed. The army was broken up into different 
bodies, so as to distract the attention of the enemy and 
cut off stragglers and harass his movements, but never 
to offer a general engagement. 3 

It was about this period that Q. Cicero again wrote 
to his brother, and it would seem that the tone of it 
was not very encouraging, for M. Tully, in answer, 
writes merely, " Concerning affairs in Britain, I collect 



1 Many places have been similarly derived, as Julium, Julii 
Forum, and the Julian Alps; but Chilham from Julham seems 
somewhat apocryphal. If Chilham be derived from Julius, pro- 
bably Challock Wood is also, for Chilham and Challock evidently 
contain the same element. 

2 " Kara x w V av afi^orejooi ejiEtvay.^ — Dion, xl. 3. As to Cesar's 
veracity generally, see Suet. Jul. 56. 

3 " Ex hac fuga protinus, quse undique convenerant auxilia dis- 
cesserunt ; neque post id tempus imquam summis nobiscum copiis 
hostes contenderunt." — B. G. v. 17. 

H 2 



100 RETREAT OF THE BRITONS. 

from your letter that there is no ground for fear and 
none for congratulation." 1 

Cassivelaun, in execution of his well-concerted plan, 
now withdrew, at the head of his own proper army, in 
the direction of his hereditary dominions on the north 
of the Thames. The active Eoman commander would 
not be far behind him, and we may imagine that on 
each day the post which Cassivelaun quitted in the 
morning was occupied by his pursuer in the evening. 
If, as is likely, there was at that time no bridge over 
the Thames in the neighbourhood of London, it would 
be necessary to seek the first ford higher up the stream. 2 
All is conjecture, but it may be suggested that Cassive- 
laun retired, followed by his antagonist, from the banks 
of the Stour along the southern side of the chalk hills 
running from Wye to Dorking, and then down the left 
bank of the Mole to the nearest point of the Thames, 
which would be at Walton. 3 The common opinion is 
that the armies crossed the Thames at Coway Stakes, a 
little above Walton and below Weybridge, at Shepper- 
ton, where is the village of Halliford, so named from 
the ford. 

Cassivelaun had no sooner placed the river be- 

1 " De Britannicis rebus cognovi ex tuis litteris nihil esse, nee 
quod metuamus, nee quod gaudeamus." — Ep. ad Q. Fr. iii. 1. 

2 About a hundred years afterwards there was a bridge, apparently 
not far from London. Dion, lx. 20. 

3 Others think that he marched by the most frequented road in 
the direction of London. It appears from Anton. Itin. that there were 
afterwards two roads from Limne to London, one direct, thus : — 

Londinio 

Durobrivis (Rochester) .... xxvn 

Duroverno (Canterbury) .... xxv 

Ad Portum Lemanis (Limne) . . . xvi 

68: 



CO WAY STAKES. 101 

tween himself and his pursuer than he fenced the 
northern bank with chevaux-de-frise of sharp stakes, 
some of them in the bed of the river 1 , for the pur- 
pose of checking, if not of preventing, the advance of 
the enemy. At the distance of a mile and a half to 
the south of Coway Stakes is an eminence overlook- 
ing the ford, called St. George's Hill, and here Ceesar 
may have pitched his camp, for there are still the re- 
mains of a Eoman castrum on the crown, double- 
trenched, and containing more than thirteen acres 2 , 
and called traditionally Caesar's camp. The very name, 
also, of Walton is said to be derived from the vallum, 
or wall, here constructed. The two hostile armies had 
not long confronted one another on the opposite banks 
when Csesar gave orders, notwithstanding the obstacles, 
to force the ford. The horse took the lead, closely fol- 
lowed by the foot, and both horse and foot dashed into 
the stream and advanced upon the enemy with such im- 
petuosity, though the legions were up to their necks in 
water 3 , that the Britons, who were rightly armed, could 
not sustain the weight of the charge, and fled in confu- 



the other circuitous — 




Londinio 




Noviomago (Croydon) .... 


X 


Vagniacis (Maidstone) 


XVIII 


Durobrivis (Rochester) 


IX 


Durolevo (Milton or Faversham) . 


XIII 


Duroverno (Canterbury) 


XII 


Ad Portum Lemanis (Limne) 


XVI 



78. 



1 " Ripa autem erat acutis sudibus prasfixis munita; ejusdemque 
generis sub aqua defixse fliimine tegebantur." — B. G. v. 18. 

2 " 13 a. 3r." — Manning's Surrey, vol. ii. 

3 " Cum capite solo ex aqua extarent." — B. G. v. 18. 

n 3 



102 THE PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 

sion. Such, at least, is the narrative of Caesar, though 
it does not very well accord with the resolute front 
shown by the Britons on other occasions. Polyamus 
would attribute Caesar's success to the presence of an 
elephant, an animal wholly unknown to the natives, 
and presenting, from its stupendous size, a supernatural 
appearance. 1 It is scarcely credible, however, that 
Caesar should have possessed an elephant in Gaul, and 
still less so, if he did, that he should not have men- 
tioned it. 

The passage of the Thames, so little disputed at the 
time between the two hosts, has since been most warmly 
contested amongst historians and antiquarians. Some 
will have it that Caesar crossed the river at West- 
minster, where, in a dry summer, the river is fordable 2 ; 
others, as Maitland, at Chelsea 3 ; others, as Lemon, at 



1 " Kaicrap kv Bperraviq. iroTa^xov fiiyav kire^eipEL TTEpcuoixrQai. 
BaaiXevQ ~Bp£Travu>v KaaoXavvog avelpye fiErd 7roXX<ov Itcttewv kui 
apjxaTb)V. Kalcrapi \iiyiO70g kXityag eiTrero, ^woy 'BpETTavoig ov% ewpa- 
[xevov. Tovtov ffidrjpaic (poXiviv o-^vpioaag kcu izvpyov k-x avTOv 
fxiyav v\pio(rag, Kal ro^orag Kal acpeydovfjrag E7riffTr}(rag, ekeXev(TEV knl 
to pevfxa kfi^aivEiv' HpErravol dk k^ETrXaynffav aoparov Kal v7TEp<pvkg 
Srjplov IdovTEg. Bperravoi jjlei' £?) at/rote %-rnroig Kal ap/jKuriv ttiEvyov, 
'Poj/jloioi dk aKtvdvviog rbv TTOTayLOV $ii€r}<rav epI %ioa> rovg iroXEfxlovg 
$o€//o-avr££." — Poly am. Stratag. vi. It is said that Claudius also, 
in a. d. 43, took elephants with him to Britain. Dion, lx. 21. 

2 " Even now, in similar seasons (two dry summers consecutively), 
the river is fordable at Westminster, as it was on the 19th of this 
very month, July, 1846." — H.L. L.: Gent. Mag. vol. xxvi. (1846) 
p. 256. 

3 " Sounding the river at several neap tides, from Wandsworth 
to London Bridge, I discovered a ford (on Sept. 18, 1732) about 
90 feet west of the S.W. angle of Chelsea College garden, whose 
channel, in a right line from N.E. to S.W., was no more than 4 feet 
7 inches deep, where the day before (it blowing hard from the west) 
my waterman informed me that the water there was above a foot 



THE PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 103 

the Earl of Dysart's grounds at Petersham, opposite 
Twickenham * ; others, as Horsley, at Kingston 2 ; others, 
as Bishop Kennett, at Wallingforcl 3 ; and others, as 
Daines Barrington 4 , are certain that Caesar never passed 
the Thames at all, but only the Medway, called by 
Caesar the Thames by mistake. It may not, perhaps, 
be uninteresting if I trace this learned controversy from 
the commencement. 

The tradition that Caesar forded the Thames at Coway 
Stakes is as old as Bede, for he says, " The footsteps 
thereof are seen to this day, and it appears upon the 
view that each of them (i. e. the stakes) is as thick as a 
man's thigh, and that, being wrapped in lead, they are 
fastened in the bed of the river immovably." 5 No 
place is here mentioned by name, but, as it has never 
been suggested that stakes were to be found elsewhere 
in the Thames, no doubt Coway Stakes is the spot 
alluded to. 

The learned Camden is very positive upon the sub- 
ject, not to say a little egotistical : " It is impossible (he 
writes in 1607) I should be mistaken in the places, be- 
cause here the river is scarce six feet deep, and the 
place at this day from those stakes is called Coway 
Stakes. To which we may add that Caesar makes the 
bounds of Cassivelaun, where he fixes his passage, to 



lower ; and it is probable that at such tides, before the course of the 
river was obstructed either by banks or bridge, it must have been 
considerably shallower." — MaitlancTs London, p. 8. 

1 Manning's Surrey, vol. ii. p. 760. 

2 Horsley's Britain. 3 Archseolog. ii. 145. 4 lb. ii. 

5 " Quarum vestigia sudium ibidem usque hodie visuntur, et 
videtur inspectantibus quod singula? earum, ad modum humani 
femoris grossae et circumfusge plumbo, immobiliter erant in pro- 
fundum fluminis infixce." — Bed. Ecc. Hist. i. 2. 

B 4 



104 THE PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 

be about eighty miles distant from the sea which 
washes the east part of Kent, where he landed. Now 
this ford we speak of is at the same distance from the 
sea, and I am the first that I know of who has men- 
tioned and settled it in its proper place." 1 

Samuel Gale, in 1734, read a paper before the 
Society of Antiquaries 2 , in which he subscribed to 
Camden's opinion, and gives us some description of 
the stakes at that time — that the stakes, from their 
antiquity, resembled ebony, and would admit a polish, 
and were not the least rotted ; that they were young 
oak trees 3 , and no mark of any tool, and the thickness 
of a man's thigh ; " but whether," he says, " they were 
covered "with lead at the ends fixed in the bottom of 
the river is a particular I could not learn." And he 
adds in a note, " Since writing of this, one of these 
stakes entire was actually weighed up between two 
loaded barges at the time of a great flood by the late 
Eev. — Clark, jun., of Long Ditton." 

However, in 1769, the Hon. Daines Barrington ap- 
peared in opposition before the same Society 4 , and 
asserted that the Coway Stakes were nothing more 
than the remains of a fishing-weir, for that a fisherman 
of Shepperton, who had been employed by some gen- 
tlemen to take up the stakes, had conducted him 
(Daines Barrington), at his desire, to the place, when 
he found, from the explanation of the said fisherman, 

1 Camd. Brit. vol. i. p. 183. 

2 Archaeolog. i. p. 184. 

3 " I have been informed that the stakes at Coway were very 
thick pieces of yew tree." — W. StuTceley : Gent. Mag. vol. Ixvii. 
(1797) p. 198. " The piles," according to another account, " were 
of chestnut wood." — Gent. Mag. vol. lix. (1787) p. 222. 

4 Archeeolog. ii. p. 141. 



THE PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 



105 



that the stakes were not along the northern bank of 
the river, but athwart the stream, thus : — 



MIDDLESEX 



THE STAKES 



SURREY 



Whereas, to prevent the passage of an army, the 
stakes should have been planted longitudinally, from 
c to D. He also draws an argument from Camden's 
own statement, that the river there was scarce six feet 
deep, for, says he, " to permit infantry to cross by 
fording with their heads above water, the depth should 
not be more than four and a half feet." 

On the other hand, a writer under the name of Clio, 
in the " Gentleman's Magazine " (vol. lix. a.d. 1787, p. 
222), would cut the matter short by positive testimony 
that the passage was at Coway Stakes, for, " upon the 
rebuilding of Walton Bridge," he says, " two years ago, 
they found several very valuable articles, among the 
rest a perfect spear with the name of Julius Caesar in- 
dented legibly in Eoman characters ! " The maker's 
name is not mentioned, but Birmingham is a very 
ancient town, and the Birmingham trade-mark might, 
no doubt, upon minute inspection, have been dis- 
covered ! ! 

In the second volume of Manning's " Surrey," published 



106 



THE PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 



in 1809 1 , and edited by Mr. Bray, the canse of Co way 
Stakes finds another zealous defender. As to the posi- 
tion of Barrington that the stakes were a fishing- weir, 
it is there asked by the writer (and, I must say, not 
without reason), why a weir of such strength should 
be found only hi this part of the river, and nothing 
similar elsewhere % Then, as to the objection urged by 
Barrington, that the stakes stretched across the river, 
and so would not prevent a passage, a Mr. Crawter, 
who knew well the neighbourhood of Walton and the 
river, is called as a witness, and deposes that the ford 
was in a curve, and that the stakes cut the curve in 
two places, so that no one, as the stakes were fixed, 
could use the ford, as may be seen by the following 
sketch : — 




It is added, in confirmation of this being the ford 
in question, that spurs and fragments of spears, &c., 
had been dug up at different times in a field called 
Warclose 2 , in the parish of Shepperton ; but, before we 



1 Page 759. 

2 D. Barrington would probably suggest that 
corruption of " weir-close." 



war-close" is a 



THE PASSAGE OP THE THAMES. 107 

admit the argument from the spurs, it must be proved, 
which may be a matter of difficulty, that the Romans 
ware spurs ! 

We have in this history the best account of the 
stakes themselves ; and the nature of them may lead us 
farther on the road to truth. It is said that " one 
Simmons, a fisherman, who had lived there, and known 
the river all his life, told the editor (Mr. Bray) in 1807, 
that at the place called Coway Stakes he had weighed 
up several stakes of the size of his thigh, about six feet 
long, shod with iron, the wood very black, and so hard 
as to turn an axe. Their boats sometimes ran against 
them. The late Earl of Sandwich used to come to 
Shepperton to fish, and gave him half a guinea a-piece 
for some of them. There were none in any other part 
of the river that he ever heard of. One now remained 
in the river, which they were not able to weigh. It 
was visible when the water was clear. His net had 
been caught and torn by it. His tradition was that 
they formed part of a bridge built by Julius Cossar, and 
he described them to have stood in two rows, as if 
going across the river, about nine feet asunder as the 
water runs, and about four feet asunder as crossing the 
river.'" 

I believe that this poor fisherman of Shepperton has 
shown more good sense than all the antiquaries, and 
that he has hit upon the right solution of the stakes, 
viz. that they were the piles of an ancient bridge. How 
could stakes in two rows nine feet asunder one way, viz. 
in the course of the stream, and four feet another, viz. 
across the stream, be intended as a barricade against 
an enemy, when a foot soldier, not to say a trooper, 
could pass through them in every direction'? How, 
again, is it credible that the stakes, which must have 



108 THE PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 

been prepared in a hurry, should have been shod with 
iron in a systematic way, as in times of peace, for the 
foundations of a bridge 1 It does not follow, however, 
that, because there had been a bridge, Caesar did not 
here ford the river ; on the contrary, the circumstance 
rather favours the supposition that he did. Assuming 
a bridge to have existed there in the time of Caesar, 
Cassivelaun would naturally retreat over it with his 
army, and then break it down and saw off the tops of 
the piles. The stakes which were driven by Cassive- 
laun himself must have been along the side of the north- 
ern bank. Caesar nowhere hints that they were across 
the river. Who can say that Caesar did not him- 
self construct the bridge 1 for he was proud of his 
mechanical skill, as is evident from his detailed account 
of the bridge thrown by him over the Khine the prece- 
ding year. 1 This, also, would account for the strong 
camp on St. George's Hill, viz. to protect the bridge, 
for the purpose of covering his retreat, should he find 
the enemy too strong for his daily-dhnmishing force. 
As for Daines Barrington's argument that because the 
water here was nearly six feet, it was, therefore, too 
deep to allow the Eoman infantry to ford, the an- 
swer is that the depth of the stream depends upon 
the season ; and we know from the Commentaries that, 
hi fact, the year B. C. 54 was an extraordinarily dry one 2 , 
so that the river in the month of August, when Caesar 
was there, may easily be conceived to have been a foot 
and a half lower than it usually is at the same period 
under ordinary circumstances. 3 

1 B. G. iv. 17. 

2 " Propter siccitates." — B. G. v. 24. 

3 Stow mentions a curious fact : " The river," he says, " has 
several times been blown almost dry, so that one on shore could not 
see any water in it from London Bridge to Westminster, particularly 



PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. 109 

It is not to be forgotten that Coway Stakes agrees 
with Ca3sar's description in several curious particulars. 
In the first place, as the Thames is a tidal river up 
to Teddington (Tide-end-town), and as Caesar, who 
is a most accurate observer of natural phenomena, 
makes no allusion to high or low water 1 when he 
was almost necessarily led to it in speaking of the 
depth of the stream and the stakes driven into its 
bed, we may reasonably infer that the passage of 
the river was at least above the point to which the 
ebb and flow of the tide extends. Again, at the point 
of passage the river was fordable, uno omnino loco, in 
only one place ; and, further, it was at the distance of 
eighty Eoman miles from Limne, the place of debar- 
cation, — both which circumstances concur at Coway 
Stakes. We may also add that, while the river has in 
many places shifted its channel, we may be sure that 
there has been a shallow here for more than eleven 
centuries at least, as the stakes are referred to by the 
Venerable Bede. 

We may close the discussion with an extract from 
Brayley's "History of Surrey," who gives the latest 
account of the ford. "Between Walton Bridge," he 
says, " and Halliford, in Shepperton parish, the river 
flows in a semicircular course of great extent, and in- 
cludes a large tract of low meadows within the bend. 
It was here that Coway Ford crossed the stream in a 

on Sept. 5, 1592, and again on Sept. 14, 1716 ; of the last I was an 
eyewitness. Thousands of people passed over it on foot." — Stow's 
London, p. 16. 

1 The phenomenon of a tidal river would be particularly striking 
to an Italian, and accordingly Pomponius Mela remarks: " Flumina 
alternis motibus modo in pelagus modo retro fluentia." — Mela, 
iii. 6. 



110 THE COUNTRY WASTED. 

circuitous direction downward, and, within memory, it 
has been traced by persons wading through the current 
when the waters were low. Witliin the last thirty or 
forty years, however, the bed, or channel, of the river 
has been much deepened in this part, under the super- 
intendence of the City authorities, in order to improve 
the navigation, in consequence of which all remains of 
the ford have been destroyed, and every trace of Coway 
Stakes obliterated." 1 

Should any one happen to be at Walton or Wey- 
bridge, and desire to see the exact spot where these 
famous stakes formerly stood, he will find it at the dis- 
tance of a furlong to the west of the northern end of 
Walton Bridge. 2 

Caesar was now on the northern bank of the Thames, 
and, as the British army had been dispersed, with the 
exception of 4000 charioteers, Caesar, with Mandubert, 
the exiled king of the Trinobantes, who was still in his 
camp, marched in the direction of the Trinobantes. It 
was hoped that, on the Eoman approach, they would at 
once throw off their forced allegiance to Cassivelaun, 
and welcome back Mandubert as their king, and 
Caesar as his ally. Cassivelaun meanwhile, at the 
head of his 4000 charioteers, watched from day to day 
the Eoman line of march, and, when he was least 
expected, sallied forth from the woods and fell upon their 
rear or intercepted their stragglers. Cassivelaun also 
showed his generalship by the adoption of the course 
which was to have been practised had Napoleon the 
Great ever thrown himself upon the British shore. By 
whatever route Caesar moved the country was depopu- 

1 Brayley's Hist, of Suit. vol. ii. p. 344. 

2 Lyson's Environs of London, article " Shepperton." 



NO ADVANTAGE GAINED. Ill 

lated; stores were carried off, and the cattle driven 
into the woods. 1 The Eoman cavalry were therefore 
obliged in foraging to range to a great distance, 
but no sooner did they part from the legions than the 
charioteers, who were superior in number, started from 
their hiding-places, and seldom failed to cut some of them 
off. The upshot was, that, if the cavalry went out to 
forage, they returned in diminished numbers, and if 
they remained with the legions the army wanted sup- 
plies. The latter alternative was thought the less 
evil, and Caesar issued a peremptory order that the 
cavalry should on no pretence quit the protection of 
the legions. 2 Caesar is reluctant to confess it, but it is 
evident from this that his cavalry were beaten by the 
British charioteers. Indeed, the very name of essedum 
or war-car now became a bugbear to the Eoman troops ; 
and Cicero, in writing about this time to Trebatius, 
a young jurisconsult, who, having failed at the bar, 
had been recommended by the orator to Caesar's 
notice (but without much effect), playfully alludes 
to it by saying : " I hear that in Britain is neither 
silver nor gold, and if so, let me advise you to cap- 
ture one of the esseda, and return as fast as you 
can." 3 And again: "You, whose profession is to 
cater for others, see that in Britain you be not 
caught yourself by the essedarii"* These letters 
assumed that Trebatius was in Britain, whither he had 

1 " Pecora atque homines ex agris in sylvas compellebat." — B. G. 
v. 19. 

2 " Kelinquebatur ut neque longius ab agmine legionum discedi 
Caesar pateretur," &c. — B. G. v. 19. 

3 " Id si ita est, essedum aliquod suadco capias, et ad nos qnam 
primum recurras." — Cic. Ep. Div. vii. 7. 

4 " Tu qui ceteris cavere didicisti, in Britannia ne ab Essedariis 
decipiaris caveto." — Ep. Div. vii. G. 



112 THE TMNOBANTES AND OTHER STATES. 

intended going ; but, in fact, on nearing the ocean, he 
had lost heart and remained in Gaul ; and Cicero, when 
he heard of it, again banters him good-humouredly 
about the essedariL " Had you gone to Britain," he 
says, " you would have been the best lawyer in all the 
island ! But (to have my joke, as you invite me) you 
seem in the camp to be much less forward than in 
the forum. You, who were so fond of swimming, 
had you no stomach for swimming on the ocean 1 You 
who were so cunning of fence, could you not face the 
essedarii V' 1 Cassar himself also about this time wrote 
to Cicero, but could not boast of any decisive advantage, 
observing merely in general terms that matters in Britain 
went on favourably enough. The letter was dated the 
1st of September, b. c. 54. 2 

The wise policy of Cassivelaun was now beginning to 
bear its fruits, and Caasar was already reduced to great 
straits in his commissariat, when the Trinobantes, now 
that Cassar with his legions was in the vicinity, broke 
out, as had been anticipated, in open rebellion against Cas- 
sivelaun, and sent an embassy to Cassar with an offer of 
submission, if he would place Mandubert on the throne 
and guarantee them security against the arms of their op- 
pressor. Csesar snatched at the opportunity of rescuing 
his army from their present distress, and stipulated only 
that hostages should be given to secure good faith, and, 
what was of primary importance, that they should im- 

1 Cic. Ep. Div. vii. 10. So : " Sin sestivorum timor te debilitat 
aliquod excogita, ut fecisti de Britannia." — vii. 14. "Quod in 
Britannia non nimis <f)i\odio)pov te praebuisti plane non repre- 
hendo." — vii. 16. " In Britanniam te profectum non esse gaudeo, 
quod et labore caruisti, et ego te de rebus illis non audiam." 
—vii. 17. 

2 Cic. Ep. ad Quint. Fr. iii. 1. 



SUBMIT TO CAESAR. 113 

mediately furnish hiin with a supply of corn. 1 Man- 
dubert returned with the Trinobantian envoys, and the 
hostages and supplies were despatched to the camp with 
all haste. 

The Eoman general turned this incident to the very 
best account. The Trinobantes were now his friends, 
and their houses and crops were spared, and the 
soldiery were strictly prohibited from offering the least 
violence within the dominions of Mandubert. 2 As a con- 
trast to this, all the adjacent parts, where the population 
was still hostile, were a smoking desert. First, Cassive- 
laun, in the execution of his well-laid plan, devastated 
the country in the line of the enemy's march, and 
then what little was left by Cassivelaun was sacked 
or destroyed by the legions of Csesar. The comparison 
was soon drawn, that the Trinobantes, who had ac- 
cepted terms, were living under the king of their 
choice safe and unmolested, while the clans that still 
adhered to Cassivelaun saw their houses burnt, their 
fields pillaged, and their cattle driven off. 3 The 
murmurs increased until eventually the Cenimagni 4 , 



1 " His Cassar imperat obsides xl frumentumque exercitui." — * 
B. G. v. 20. 

2 " Trinobantibus defensis atque ab omni militum injuria prohi- 
bitis." — B. G. v. 21. Cs&sar, therefore, was in the country of the 
Trinobantes. 

3 The devastation of Britain must have been appalling, for Caesar 
is represented as saying : " Tec & ovk av op&v olvpatto ri)v 'ItciXiclv 
bfxoiujg Tr\ Bjoerrrm'p iropdovfiivriv" — Dion, xli. 30. 

4 Or Cenimani, the same as the Iceni (Norfolk and Suffolk). 
They are called by Ptolemy the Sifxevol, and are placed by him next to 
the Trinobantes on the north-west. Ptol. ii. 3, 21. Probably also 
the same as Tevovvia fioTpa, placed in Pausanias next the Brigantes. 
Pans. viii. 43. 

I 



114 SIEGE OF VERULAMIUM. 

Segontiaci 1 , Ancalites 2 , Bibroci 3 , and Cassi 4 , the clans 
round about the Catyeuehlani, sent envoys to Caesar 
and tendered their submission. The states which thus 
revolted from Cassivelaun had probably been not long 
before brought under his rule or subjugated by one of 
his ancestors, and were now, like the Trinobantes, en- 
deavouring to throw off the galling yoke. 

As Cassivelaun with his 4000 charioteers still kept 
the field, Caesar resolved on striking a blow, which at 
all events must shake the prestige still attaching to the 
name of the British patriot. The Cassi, who had turned 
traitors and were the nearest neighbours of Cassivelaun, 
offered to conduct the enemy to the capital of the 

1 Not known ; but on one of the coins of Cunobelin, successor to 
Cassivelaun as king of the Catyeuehlani, is the half word sego., no 
doubt indicating the Segontiaci, subjects of Cunobelin. (See Monum. 
Hist. Brit.) Caernarvon bore the name of Segontium, but this 
seems too distant. 

2 Not known ; but perhaps Oxfordshire, as the Dobuni were the 
subjects of the Catyeuehlani (Dion, lx. 20) ; and the name of 
Ancalites has been thought to be still traceable in the town of Henley 
on Thames. 

3 Not known; but perhaps Buckinghamshire. In the map of 
Richard of Cirencester (a. d. 1340) the Bibroci are placed in Berk- 
shire ; but they appear to have been subjects of Cassivelaun, and he 
had no territory to the south of the Thames. 

4 The hundred of Cassio, in Hertfordshire. Some think that 
Cassivelaunus is Belinus, or king, of the Cassi, as Cunobelinus is 
conjectured to be Belinus, or king, of the Iceni; but if the Cassi 
were the immediate and proper subjects of Cassivelaunus, it is hardly 
credible that they should have revolted from him, and afterwards 
have urged the capture of Verulamium, their own capital. In the 
Monument. Ancyran. are the following words : " Ad me (Augustus) 
supplices confugerunt . . . Reges Britannorum Damno Bel- 
launusque." (See Mon. Hist. Brit, cvi.) It is singular that as Bel- 
launus enters into the composition of Cassivelaunus and Cunobelinus, 
so Damno may be traced in the names of Cogidumnus and Togo- 
dumnus, kings in the time of Claudius. 



SIEGE OF VERULAMIUM. 115 

Catyeuchlani, Verulamium, or St. Albans ; and, as the 
place was at no great distance, Ca3sar led his legions 
thither, hoping that the loss of the chief city might 
bring his antagonist to reason. The town is described 
by Caesar as fortified by a rampart and a ditch, and as 
deriving additional strength from woods and marshes. 1 
The woods have long since been cleared, but the river 
Ver (from which the name .of Verulamium) still runs 
to the north of the old site, and formerly stagnated 
in marshes. 2 The inclosure within the rampart was 
very different from one of the continental cities, 
which usually consisted of narrow streets and many- 
storied houses. In the capital of Cassivelaun, on the 
contrary, was a freedom of space, and there were trees 
and pastures, or as we should call them parks. 3 

The place was indefensible against a regular and well- 
disciplined army like that of Cassar, and Cassivelaun 
dared not risk his fortunes upon the forlorn hope of 
withstanding an assault or sustaining a siege. The 
only possibility of averting the blow was by creating 
a diversion to the south of the Thames, and he there- 
fore sent orders to the four princes of Kent — Cin- 
getorix, Carnilius, Taximagulus, and Segonax — who 
still remained faithful to the British cause, to collect 
with dispatch the Kentish forces and make a dash at 
the Eoman camp. It was hoped that if the attempt 
did not succeed it might still distract the invader's at- 
tention. Quintus Atrius, who had been left in com- 

1 " Silvis paludibusque munitum . . . silvas impeditas vallo 
atqne fossa munierunt . . . locum reperit egregie natiira atque 
opere munitum." — B. G. v. 21. 

2 See Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire. 

3 " Oppidum autem Britanni vocant, quum silvas impeditas vallo 
atque fossa, munierunt, quo incursionis vitandce causa convenire 
consuerunt." — B. G. v. 21. 

i 2 



116 THE ROMAN CAMP ATTACHED. 

mand of the camp, proved himself equal to the emer- 
gency. Following the example set him by Csesar 
himself in the former campaign, he did not await the 
enemy's attack, but making a sudden sally threw the 
Britons into confusion, and even captured Lugotorix, an 
officer of high rank. This damped the courage of the 
allies, and any further attempt was abandoned as hope- 
less. 1 

We may here mention by the way, how improbable 
and untenable is the hypothesis that the camp of Csesar 
was at Pevensey. There is not the least reason to sup- 
pose that the boundaries of Kent were ever different 
from the present, and to the west of the Cantii were the 
Eegni, or people of Sussex and Surrey. 2 The injunction 
laid by Cassivelaun upon the kings of Kent to assault 
the camp of Csesar was evidently because the locality 
of it was in Kent. Had it been at Pevensey, the order 
would have been sent to the Eegni, or at least to the 
Eegni and Cantii conjointly, but not to the Cantii ex- 
clusively. But on the assumption that Csesar landed at 
Eomney Marsh, and entrenched his camp at Limne, 
the circumstance is just what would be expected. 

Caesar, meanwhile, undiverted by the hostilities in 
Kent, closed around the doomed capital of Cassivelaun, 
and, dividing his army into two bodies, delivered 
the assault at two different points. Cassivelaun him- 

1 B. G.v. 22. 

2 The capital of the Eegni was Eegnuin, or Chichester; and, 
about a century after this time, Cogidunus, a feudatory of the 
Eomans, was king of the Eegni. Tac. Agric. 14. Some years 
ago, a most interesting tablet was discovered at Chichester, bearing 
the name of Cogidubnus (no doubt the same as Cogidunus), and in- 
dicating that under his auspices a temple, dedicated to Minerva and 
Neptune, had been erected in the reign of Claudius at the expense 
of the ironmasters of Sussex. See Horslei/s Britain, and Montim. 
Hist. Brit. 



VERULAMIUM TAKEN. 117 

self was not present, and probably the garrison was 
not numerous. On the other hand, the legionaries 
were now engaged on an enterprise which was familiar 
to them, and advanced to the assault with their wonted 
alacrity. The Britons could not long bear the brunt of 
the disciplined valour of the Eomans, and were driven 
from the city with no great loss of life, but leaving as a 
spoil to the enemy the numerous flocks and herds which 
had been here collected from the adjacent country. 1 

The fortunes of Cassivelaun were now at their lowest 
ebb. With occasional glimpses of success, he had been 
beaten in every general engagement. He had seen his 

1 I have adopted the common notion that Verulamium was Cas- 
sivelaun's town ; but there are objections to it, for it was probably 
the capital of the Cassi, and, if so, it is very unlikely that they 
should have stimulated Caesar to march against it (B. G. v. 21); 
and, besides, it does not very well answer to the description given by 
Caesar, viz. a place defended by woods and marshes, though both 
woods and marshes may at that time have existed. 

On the other hand, there are many plausible arguments in favour 
of London. The latter was unquestionably a British settlement, as 
the name implies, and about 100 years after this was one of the 
first, if not the first, city in Britain. Tac. Ann. xiv, 33. The situation 
also exactly agrees, for Caesar says the place was " sylvis paludibusque 
munitum" (B. G. v. 21); which Orosius expounds as follows: 
" oppidum inter duas paludes si turn, obtentu insuper sylvar-um 
munitum" (Oro. vi. 9): and just such is London as painted by 
the old chroniclers. " An immense forest originally extended to 
the river side, and, even as late as the reign of Henry II., covered 
the northern neighbourhood of the city. It was defended naturally 
by fosses ; one formed by the creek which ran along Fleet Ditch 
(west), and the other afterwards known by that of Walbrook (east). 
The south side was guarded by the Thames ; the north they might 
think sufficiently guarded by the forest." — Encyc. Londin. art. 
"London." 

If London was the place attacked, we can understand why the Cassi 
should have prompted it ; for their chief city, Verulam, was the old 
capital of the Catyeuchlani, and they were naturally jealous of the 
rising importance of the great commercial mart. 

i 3 



118 CRITICAL POSITION OF CAESAR. 

capital taken and sacked; many of the states which 
owed him allegiance had revolted. On the other hand, 
Caesar also felt himself in a critical situation. True, 
he was master of the ground on which he stood, but so 
long as Cassivelaun was at the head of his 4000 cha- 
rioteers, the victor could not subdivide his army, and 
could not even detach his cavalry on any expedition, 
either for the annoyance of the enemy or defence of his 
allies. The subsistence of his troops depended alto- 
gether on the Trinobantes, and should the party opposed 
to Mandubert gain the ascendency, even their, fidelity 
could not be reckoned upon. He was also uneasy about 
the camp, which was too far distant to be under his own 
keeping, and where again the Britons might assemble 
in force and with better success. But above all, it was 
now the month of September, and as it was quite im- 
possible that he should remain in Britain during the 
winter (for the Gauls would rise in his absence), it was 
necessary to take measures for his immediate return. 
If the equinoctial gales set in, some serious loss might 
occur. It was thus evidently Caesar's policy to patch 
up a peace and retire from the contest, if he could do 
so with credit, or at least without dishonour. In addi- 
tion to the chagrin arising from the want of his usual 
military triumphs, Caesar had also a heavy heart from 
the news which now reached him of the death of 
his beloved daughter Julia, the wife of Pompey, the 
disruption of the last frail tie which held the two ambi- 
tious chiefs together. 1 

It was about this time, when Caesar saw the neces- 
sity of coming to terms, that he wrote to Cicero 
to prepare the Eoman public for the abandonment 
of Britain. " I learn from my brother's letter," writes 

1 " C. Caesar quum Britanniam peragraret, nee oceano felicitatem 
suam continere posset, audivit decessisse filiam, pnblica secum fata 
ducentem." — Senec. cle Consolat. ad Marciam, 14. 



OVERTURES FOR PEACE. 



119 



Cicero to Atticus, "some extraordinary instances of 
Cajsar's regard for me, and this is confirmed by a 
very full letter from Ca3sar himself. They are now- 
looking forward to a termination of the war in 
Britain, for it is plain that the approaches to the island 
are defended by stupendous masses (the cliffs). They 
have also found that there is not a scrap of gold in the 
whole island ! nor any prospect of booty except from 
slaves, amongst whom, methinks, you may look in vain 
for any skill in letters or music." l 

According to Caesar, the first overtures for peace 
came from Cassivelaun ; but one circumstance is men- 
tioned incidentally which leads us to conjecture that 
though ostensibly the ground was broken by Cassive- 
laun, yet in fact the movement proceeded from Cgesar 
himself. It is said that the proposition reached Cgesar 
through Comius of Arras. Now Comius was the 
creature of Csesar and followed his camp, and it is not 
unlikely that the politic Eoman conveyed an intimation 
through Comius that if terms of peace were offered 
they would be favourably received. At all events, an 
arrangement was come to by which Cassivelaun was to 
give hostages for his good faith, and Britain was nomin- 
ally to pay a fixed annual tribute. 2 The hostages were 
given, but no tribute was ever paid, and it was probably 
understood at the time by both parties that the tribute 
was not to be exacted. Any one might foresee that it 
would not be forthcoming except on compulsion, and 
as Cassar did not propose to leave any garrison in the 
island, he of course knew that the tribute would never 

1 Epist. Attic, iv. 16. The letter to Atticus was written in the 
latter half of October ; and the letter of Caesar must therefore have 
been written in the latter half of September. 

2 Caesar speaks of Britain generally; but Livy writes " cUiquqm 
partem insulae in potestatcm rcdogit." — Liv. Epit. lib. 105. 

i 4 



120 THE FATE OF MANDUBERT. 

reach liis exchequer. Mandubert and his partisans 
amongst the Trinobantes had betrayed their country's 
cause, and attached themselves to the fortunes of Cassar, 
and the Eoman ought not to have negotiated a peace 
without providing for the safety of Mandubert and his 
friends. It would appear, however, that Cassar did not 
make it one of the articles of the treaty that Mandubert 
should be seated on the throne of the Trinobantes, but 
contented himself only with an idle threat if Cassivelaun 
should ever disturb him. 1 Cassar must have felt that 
if he withdrew his army into Gaul, as was his fixed 
intention, it was impossible to secure to Mandubert the 
possession of his kingdom. Such, at all events, was the 
result, for a century afterwards we find the kings of the 
Catyeuchlani, the descendants of Cassivelaun, ruling 
over the Trinobantes. 2 To what immediate successor 
was transmitted the crown which Cassivelaun had so 
manfully maintained, history has not informed us ; but 
there must have been but little space between him and 
Tasciovanus, who was the father of Cunobelin, or Cym- 
beline, who was the father of Caractacus, the British 
hero in the reign of Claudius. 3 The coins of Tascio- 

1 " Interdicit atque imperat Cassivelauno ne Mandubratio neu 
Trinobantibus bellum faciat." — B. G. v. 22. 

2 (t Hpwrov jxkv KarapctTaicov, eVtira Toyofiovfivov KvvoIdsWivov 
Tralfiag evinrjiTEV, avrog yap eredviiKSf (pvyovrioy £e eKeii'Ojv irpoo- 
E7roo](raro ajJioXoyia. fxipog tl t&v ISodovwov, u>v kTrr]p\ov KaroveWavoi 
ovrtc-" — Dion, lx. 20. 

3 The pedigree of the kings of the Catyeuchlani would therefore 
stand as follows : — 

Cassivelaun. 

Tasciovanus. 

I 

Cunobelin. 



Caractacus. Togodumnus. Adrainius. 



DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS. 121 

vanus are stamped with the name of Verulamium, the 
capital of the Catyeuchlani, and the coins of Cunobelin 
with the names of Verulamium and Camulodunum, the 
capital of the Trinobantes \ and at the latter Cunobelin 
seems eventually to have fixed his palace. 2 

Crcsar now retraced his steps to the sea, and one 
is curious to know what was his route ; where he crossed 
the Thames, and through what towns he passed. But 
his narrative gives no details, and we may therefore 
conclude that the march was an ordinary one, and that 
no misadventure occurred. The Britons no doubt 
watched with satisfaction the retrograde movement of 
their powerful adversary, and were well enough content 
to let him depart in peace. 

How far northward Caesar had advanced before the 
conclusion of hostilities it is impossible to say. Strabo, on 
the one hand, affirms that it was no great way 3 ; Florus, 
on the other, speaks of his having penetrated even to 
the Caledonian woods. 4 We collect from the Commen- 
taries that Caesar, with his army, was amongst the Trino- 
bantes, and subsequently at Verulam ; but we should 
imagine, from the short time spent in Britain, that he 
did not proceed much further — not probably beyond 
Hertfordshire. 

Caesar on reaching Limne was under some anxiety 
how to transport his troops. A large proportion of his 
vessels had utterly perished in the storm shortly after 
his arrival ; but he had left orders for the refitting of 

1 See the coins in Mon. Hist. Brit. p. 153. 

2 "To Kafj.ov\6^ovvoy to tov Kvvoj3e\\ivov /Sac/Xfiov." — Dion, 
lx. 21. 

3 " Ovle irooekdiov £7ri ttoXv ttjq vriaov." — Strcib. lib. iv. c. 5. 

4 " Caledonias secutus in sylvas unum quoqtie e regibus Cave- 
lianis (q. Cantianis, or Cassivelaunianis, see Cces. B. G. v. 22) in 
vincula dedit." — Floi-us Epit. iii. 10. 



122 CAESAR'S LETTER TO CICERO. 

such as had been damaged only, and had instructed 
Labienus, who had remained in Gaul, to build others 
with the greatest dispatch. The repairs of the old fleet 
had been completed, but no additional ships from La- 
bienus had arrived. As, therefore, the whole army 
could not be conveyed at once in the vessels at com- 
mand, Caesar determined on making two successive 
shipments. The first part of the army was em- 
barked at once, and Caesar himself, like a prudent 
general, remained in Britain in charge of the second 
division. 

It was during this interval, while he was waiting for 
the return of his ships with the addition of those newly 
built by Labienus, that he wrote another letter to Cicero 
at Eome. It appears to have communicated no striking 
intelligence, but was a mere summary. Every word, 
however, written by Caesar, and from Britain, possesses 
a high degree of interest, and it needs no apology to 
give Cicero's notice of it in an epistle to his friend 
Atticus. " On the 24th October," he says, " I received 
a letter from my brother Quintus, and another from 
Caesar, dated from the shores of Britain, the 26th 
September. Britain was disposed of, and hostages 
received ; no booty, but a tribute imposed. They were 
bringing back their troops from Britain." x 

The date of 26th September must not mislead us. 
The calendar had not been reformed, and the reckoning 
of time was extremely erroneous, and we shall see pre- 
sently that in reality the letter must have been written 

1 " Ab Quinto fratre et a Caesare accepi a. d. ix. Kalend. Novemb. 
litteras ; confecta Britannia, obsidibus aeceptis, nulla praeda, imperata 
tamen pecunia; datas a littoribus Britannise, proximo a. d.vi. Kalend. 
Octob. Exercitum Britannia reportabant." — Cic. Ep. Attic, iv. 17. 



WRECK OF THE TRANSPORTS. 123 

at least some days previously, viz. before 24th Sep- 
tember. 

In maritime matters Caesar throughout was most un- 
fortunate. As the return transports and the newly built 
vessels from Labienus were crossing the channel, they 
encountered such a storm that few of them only reached 
Britain, and the rest were driven back to the port which 
they had quitted. Nothing could be more mortifying. 
In a short time heavy gales were to be expected, and 
the navigation of the seas would become dangerous. 
As one division only of the army was in Britain, the 
islanders, encouraged by the enemy's weakness, might, 
as they had done the previous year, again commence 
hostilities, when who could foresee the result % Several 
days passed, and either from stress of weather or want 
of repairs, the expected vessels from Gaul did not 
arrive. The equinox was just at hand 1 , and Cassar was 
afraid of any longer delay, and therefore determined on 
embarking the remaining forces at once in the stinted 
number of vessels which had reached him. The decks 
would of course be inconveniently crowded, but depar- 
ture from Britain was to be effected at any cost. At 
nine o'clock at night, in calm weather, Csesar hoisted 
anchor from the shores of Britain, leaving not a soldier 
behind 2 , and never more to return. Boulogne was 
reached at break of morn ; and the day may be fixed 
with some degree of precision as follows : — The equinox 
was not over but was close at hand, and it must there- 
fore have been before, and not long before, the 24th 
September, which was then reckoned the day of the 

1 " Quod eqiiinoctium suberat." — B. G. v. 23. 

2 " Kcu ovlev iytcaTeXure cparcv/ia iv avrp." — Dion, xl. 4. 

3 " Summa tranquillitate consecuta, secunda inita quum solvisset 
vigilia, prima luce terram attigit." — B. G. v. 23. 



124 CESAR'S RETURN TO GAUL. 

equinox. As the sun rises about that time a little 
before 6 a.m., he must have gained Boulogne about 
5 A.M., when daylight would begin. But as Boulogne 
was a tidal harbour, it was necessary that he should 
enter it at, or a little before, high water. On what day, 
therefore, would it be high water at Boulogne at 5 A. M. 
just before the 24th September ] The full moon for 
September, B. c. 54, was on the 15th of the month, 
when it would be high water at Boulogne at 11*20 A. M. 
Consequently, if we reckon forward, we shall find that 
it was high tide at Boulogne at 5 a.m. on the 22nd 
September. It was thus on the evening of the preced- 
ing day, or the 21st September, that Cassar quitted 
Britain for ever. 

We must here draw an inference from the time occu- 
pied hi crossing the Channel. As Cassar sailed at nine at 
night, and gained the coast of Gaul at 5 A. M., he was 
just eight hours on the passage. Now, if he steered for 
Boulogne, which is twenty- eight miles, the rate of 
sailing was three and a half miles an hour, which is 
what might be expected from row boats in calm 
weather. 1 But if he embarked, as the Astronomer 
Eoyal supposes, at Pevensey, and sailed to the estuary 
of the Somme, a distance of sixty miles, it would yield 
an average speed of seven and a half miles an hour, 
which for row boats, and in a calm, is inconceivable. 
The Professor urges, as an argument in his favour, that 
Cassar, on arriving in Gaul, held a council at Samaro- 
briva, or Amiens, which is on the Somme 2 ; but I can- 
not attach any importance to this, as it is expressly 

1 They were all " actuariae " (B. G.v.-l), and it was " snmma 
tranquillitas" (B. G. v. 23). 

2 " Subductis navibus, concilioque Gallorum Samarobriva? peracto." 
— B. G. v. 24. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 125 

mentioned that he had previously laid up his vessels in 
ordinary at the port of his arrival, and might of course 
after that have departed for Amiens or any other town 
of Gaul. The very fact also of laying up the vessels in 
ordinary implies the presence of naval docks and yards 
on an extensive scale, which would be found in the 
great port of the Morini, but not in a mere estuary. 1 

I have now sketched the two Invasions of Britain by 
Cassar, and the little success of them is matter of sur- 
prise. In the first year, Caesar scarcely ventured a mile 
from the sea-shore. He had wholly miscalculated the 
strength of the enemy, and being destitute also of 
cavalry, he acted throughout, after his first landing, on 
the defensive. On the second occasion he attempted, 
at the head of three times the force, and a numerous 
body of cavalry, to retrieve his credit ; but such was 
the obstinacy with which the Britons encountered him, 
that until the rebellion in his favour of the Trinobantes' 
he was reduced by the tactics of the enemy to the 
utmost straits. Even after the civil dissension which 
threw the Trinobantes and the clans which followed 
them into the arms of Caesar, Cassivelaun, with his 
charioteers, was master of the country, except in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the legions. The Britons 
were no doubt far behind the Eomans in discipline, 
and Cassivelaun may not have been a match for Caesar 
in strategy ; yet the islanders displayed, such an indomi- 

1 " Un fait me parait tranclier la question : c'est la mise a 
sec des vaisseaux apres le retour a Icius (B. G. iv. 21). Or ceci ne 
peut s' entendre que d'un veritable camp naval construit selon toutes 
les regies, c'est a dire, divise par quartiers, flanque de palissades, 
entoure d'un large fosse ( Tit. Liv. xxxvi. 45, xxiii. 28), protege 
enfin, defendu avec toutes les ressources qu'ofFrait a Cesar sa longue 
pratique de castrametation." — Mariette, o4. 



126 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

table spirit, and Cassivelaun so much natural military 
genius, that Caesar was content to retire from the con- 
test without any sensible advantage. The British gen- 
eral, instead of being led a captive to Eome, treated for 
peace on a footing of equality. Even the terms agreed 
upon in favour of Eome were probably never meant to 
be, and certainly never were, fulfilled. One thing is 
clear, that when Caesar quitted the island he left not a 
soul behind, and that for about 100 years afterwards 
the Britons were as free as if a Eoman legion had never 
trod the soil. Caesar of course represents his exploits 
in the most favourable light, and would have us suppose 
that he succeeded in extorting hostages and imposing a 
tribute ; but had the British Annals descended to us by 
the side of the Eoman Commentaries, we might then 
have heard of the destruction of Caesar's cavalry by the 
Essedarii, the weakening of the legions by successful 
sallies against their rearguard, and the tliinning of their 
ranks from exposure and privation, until at length the 
conqueror of Gaul was under the necessity of submitting 
to an ignominious peace. Even his own countrymen 
have done the Britons some justice, for Tacitus confesses 
that Caesar by Iris two campaigns made only the dis- 
covery of Britain, not the conquest of it * ; that although 
victorious in more than one fight, he had eventually 
been worsted and obliged to abandon the enterprise 2 ; 
that the Britons, in short, retained their freedom, 



1 " Primus omnium Romanorum Divus Julius cum exercitu 
Britanniam ingressus, quanquam prospera pugna terruerit incolas, 
ac littore potitus sit, potest videri ostendisse posteris, non tradidisse." 
— Vit. Agric. 13. 

2 " Recessuros [Romanos], ut Divus Julius recessisset, modo 
virtutes majorum suorum [Britanni] aeniularentur, neve proelii 
unius aut alterius eventu pavescerent." — Tac. Agric. c. 15. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 127 

and were never tributaries to Home. 1 Lucan even 
goes so far as to say that Caesar and his army had fairly 
shown their backs to the Britons ; and Horace 2 and 
Tibullus 3 both treat the Britons as still un vanquished 
in their time. Strabo observes that Caesar made no 
great progress ; 4 and Dion Cassius tells us that Caesar 
was repulsed 5 , and that he brought the war in Britain 
to a conclusion very little to his liking. 6 This we can 
readily conceive, for the expense of constructing 800 
vessels, and freighting them with a numerous army, 
must have been enormous ; and what was there to show 
for it 1 — Caesar in Gaul, and Britain without a Roman ! 

1 " Vacui a securibns et tributis." — Tac. Ann. xii. 34. 

2 " Intactus Britannus ut descenderet 

Sacra catenatus via." Epoch Lib. vii. 7. 

3 " Te manet invictus Romano Marte Britannus." — Lib.iv.v. 149. 

4 " OvSev fikya £ia7rpa£a^£voc." — Strabo, iv. 5. 

5 " Tov Kaiaapa tov 'IovXlov Zkeivov et,rj\acrafj£v [the Britons]." — 
Xiphilinus, cited Mon. Hist. Brit. p. lvi. 

6 "01% oiov IGovXzto rw Tro\£fiu> ri\og tiriOr]Ktv" — Vit. Jul. Cces. 
23. 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 



Since the preceding pages were written, the Eev. C. Merivale 
(author of the "Eoman History") has kindly placed in my 
hands a tract by Christopher Grodmond, Esq., published in 
1836, intituled "A Memoir of Therrouane and a Discourse 
on the Portus Itius of Caesar." It is there contended that 
the port from which Caesar sailed was Wissant, and the 
portus superior Sangatte, and that the debarcation was 
at Deal. The arguments by which these views are sup- 
ported contain little novelty, and do not shake the author's 
confidence in the theory submitted to the reader in the fore- 
going Essay. The only remarkable feature in the publication 
is, the copy of an old map, of which the following account is 
given : — 

" M. Deneufville, in an autograph MS. of the date 1724 and 
1725, intituled ' Annales de la Ville de St. Omer,' shows an 
ancient chart of the country of the Morini and of the Portus 
Itius, where Malbrancq places it, at Sangatte, including 
Therrouanne, as the country was in the 8th century. The 
original chart, however, is not now amongst other MSS. of the 
8th century in that library." And Mr. Grodmond continues : 
" The author of this Memoir has seen the copy of M. Deneuf- 

K 



130 APPENDIX. 

ville attached to the MS. in the library of St. Omer, but on 
inquiry for the original amongst the MSS. of the 8th cen- 
tury, he was informed it had been lost." 

That the reader may judge for himself as to the genuine- 
ness of the map, a copy of it is annexed; but the author 
cannot regard it otherwise than as a fanciful sketch, illustra- 
tive of the draftsman's idea that the sea once flowed up to St. 
Omer. For this purpose the geography of Ptolemy has been 
ingeniously applied. It will be seen on inspecting the map 
that the "lxiov "Axgov of Ptolemy is placed at Cape Blancnez 
instead of Cape Grisnez, and the Trjo-ogtuxov knlvsiov of 
Ptolemy at St. Omer. In aid of the latter view the three last 
syllables of Gresoriac are identified with the site of an old 
chapel near St. Omer called Soriack. That changes in this 
part of the coast may have taken place is not improbable, 
but it would require strong evidence to prove that the face of 
the country has undergone so total a transformation as here 
represented, not to mention that a map of the 8th century, 
existing in 1724, would be a topographical curiosity. 




CARTE 

cUo .Port Jtisios 

de Cesar dans les JWbrins ei 
des lieuce ei environs oil Ida voit. 
1 . le I'ronwrvtvir&Jtius de Ptolemy 

2 lelfcwre cCe Sangatte 

3 le 6t>i/e Jttus jrtsquervSitieu. 
4. leHfiivrt. GeffcrLac oic de Souruw 
S leTais lessor iar de FCcne. 







i 



t 



131 



No. n. 

Should the discussion in the foregoing pages 
upon the subject of the Coway Stakes have 
excited any interest in the reader, some fur- 
ther particulars may not be unacceptable. A 
so-called Coway Stake has been deposited in 
the British Museum, and may be seen there 
amongst the British Roman Antiquities. A 
sketch of it is annexed. That it may have 
been brought from Coway ford is not impos- 
sible, but it can scarcely have been one of 
those described by Bede, as cased with lead 
and about the size of a man's thigh, or one of 
those which were taken by the fisherman Sim- 
mons to have served for the piles of an ancient 
bridge. The Museum stake is about four feet 
long, has no trace of either iron or lead, and is 
not bigger than a man's arm. The lower half 
apparently has been buried in the ground, 
and the upper half only exposed to the action 
of water. The wood is thought to be oak. 
If the relic be genuine, it must have been one 
of the stakes planted near the river's edge. 

However, Caesar speaks of acutce sudes, while 
the head of the one in question has been flat- 
tened by the mallet or driver.* Indeed it has 
all the appearance of an ordinary stake used 
for a weir, or for some fishing apparatus. 

* A friend, who has examined the stake with some 
minuteness, observes that the fibres of the wood at the 
head lie all in one direction, and that this is the re- 
sult, not of mechanical force, but of the constant action 
of the stream. 



THE END. 



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